EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY 


IN  THE 

EARLY  MIDDLE  AGES 


BY 

Patrick  Joseph  McCormick,  S.  T.  L. 


A  DISSERTATION 

j 

Submitted  to  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy 

of  THE 

Catholic  University  of  America 
in  Partial  Fulfilment  of  the  Requirements  for 
the  Degree,  Doctor  of  Philosophy 


LA93 
M  13 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
June,  1912 


» 


t  j  »  3 

fVf  J  T 
t  I  • w 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY 

IN  THE 

EARLY  MIDDLE  AGES 


BY 

Patrick  Joseph  McCormick,  S.  T.  L. 


A  DISSERTATION 

Submitted  to  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy 

of  THE 

Catholic  University  of  America 
in  Partial  Fulfilment  of  the  Requirements  for 
the  Degree,  Doctor  of  Philosophy 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
June,  1912 


The  Catholic  Education  Press 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


CONTENTS. 


Preface _  5 

CHAPTER 

I.  The  Fifth  and  Sixth  Centuries _  9 

II.  The  Seventh  and  Eighth  Centuries _ 20 

III.  Revival  under  Charlemagne  and  Alcuin _ 29 

IV.  The  School  for  Externs _ 41 

V.  The  Tenth  and  Eleventh  Centuries _ 51 


Bibliography 


61 


I 


PREFACE. 


In  this  dissertation  the  aim  has  been  to  show  the  nature 
and  extent  of  the  provision  made  in  the  early  Middle 
Ages  for  the  education  of  the  laity.  The  period  covered 
is  from  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  the  rise  of  the 
universities,  or  more  precisely,  from  the  fifth  to  the 
eleventh  century,  inclusively.  The  attempt  has  been  made 
to  describe  the  state  of  education  in  each  succeeding  cen¬ 
tury,  to  indicate  the  distribution  of  schools  over  different 
areas,  and  to  show  the  possibilities  of  education  open  to 
those  who  were  not  preparing  for  the  clerical  or  the  relig¬ 
ious  life.  In  consequence,  the  great  movements  which 
affected  the  state  of  culture  or  learning  and  revived  the 
educational  spirit  of  the  time  have  come  first  under  con¬ 
sideration,  the  effect  of  such  movements  on  general  edu¬ 
cation  and  particularly  on  the  elementary  instruction  of 
the  young,  being  especially  noted.  The  efforts  in  behalf 
of  educational  reform  made  by  those  in  authority  in  State 
and  Church,  e.  g.,  Charlemagne  and  Alcuin,  Louis  the 
Pious  and  St.  Benedict  of  Aniane,  are  shown  both  by  an 
examination  of  the  capitularies,  canons  and  decrees  of 
councils  and  synods  of  their  time,  and  wherever  possible, 
by  the  actual  results  which  were  obtained  in  the  quicken¬ 
ing  of  educational  thought  and  zeal  on  the  part  of  the 
leaders,  and  in  the  establishment  of  schools. 

It  is  believed  that  undue  importance  is  not  given  to  the 
enactments  of  civil  or  ecclesiastical  law  dealing  with  edu¬ 
cational  matters.  Regarded  as  evidences  of  law  and  pre¬ 
cept  and  not  merely  as  points  of  recommendation,  they 
are  held  to  be  remarkable  for  their  number  and  variety ; 
they  are  not  thought  to  be  seriously  defective  because 
wanting  in  that  detail  which  so  many  consider  as  neces¬ 
sary  for  the  inauguration  of  any  new  measures  of  admin¬ 
istration  or  reform.  When  one  realizes  how  little  is  said 


6 


PREFACE 


of  education  or  the  means  of  promoting  the  same  in  the 
constitutions  of  modern  States;  how  scanty  is  the  pro¬ 
vision  made  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
in  the  early  constitutions  of  the  several  States  of  the 
Union,  for  the  elementary  schools,  one  appreciates  more 
justly  these  early  endeavors  in  behalf  of  education.  ‘  ‘  The 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  contains  no  reference 
to  the  duty  of  providing  the  means  for  education.  That 
great  document  is  silent  upon  the  subject  of  first  public 
concern,  although  the  fathers  of  the  Constitution  were 
neither  indifferent  nor  uninformed  about  it.”  (Draper, 
A.  S.  “Functions  of  the  State  Touching  Education,”  in 
the  Educational  Review,  XV;  107.)  “The  earlier  state 
constitutions  only  infrequently  contain  mention  of  educa¬ 
tion,”  but  this,  it  is  said,  “was  not  because  of  any  lack  of 
recognition  of  the  position  of  the  State  government  in  re¬ 
spect  to  schools  and  educational  facilities.  Rather  was  it 
tacitly  assumed  that  State  legislatures  in  carrying  out 
their  general  powers  of  protecting  the  commonwealths 
and  promoting  the  welfare  of  individuals  would  find  that 
a  provision  of  education  offered  a  serviceable  means  to 
these  ends.”  (Dutton  and  Snedden,  Administration  of 
Public  Education  in  the  United  States,  56.  New  York, 
1910.) 

It  is  taken  as  matter  of  course  that  the  modern  State 
or  community  went  about  the  work  of  education  by  build¬ 
ing  and  maintaining  schools  long  before  it  began  to  legis¬ 
late  about  them,  enforce  attendance,  etc.,  but  the  same  is 
not  thought  possible  for  the  Middle  Ages,  and  what  rul¬ 
ings  we  have  on  education  for  that  period  are  not  re¬ 
garded  as  indicative  either  of  the  intentions  of  the  legis¬ 
lators,  or  of  the  actual  state  of  education.  It  would  be 
more  natural  and  logical  to  feel  that  certain  things  were 
assumed  then,  as  they  are  now  by  legislators,  and  that 
the  officials  of  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  orders  really  in¬ 
tended  to  execute  the  laws  they  made.  What  was  done 
by  the  bishops  in  regard  to  the  schools  of  their  jurisdic- 


PREFACE 


7 


tion  was  more  than  once  a  real  anticipation  of  a  practice 
that  later  became  a  matter  of  law.  Some  of  their  educa¬ 
tional  measures,  like  the  founding  of  scholarships,  were 
first  carried  into  effect  and  afterward  merely  confirmed 
by  law.  The  capitularies,  canons,  decrees,  and  the  vari¬ 
ous  forms  of  legislation  and  direction  are,  therefore,  en¬ 
titled  to  serious  study,  and  ought  to  be  regarded  as 
weighty  evidence  of  the  educational  interests  and  activi¬ 
ties  of  their  time. 

The  types  of  schools  flourishing  in  each  succeeding  cen¬ 
tury  are  reviewed  in  order  to  obtain  an  idea  of  their  ex¬ 
tent  and  the  provision  made  in  them  for  the  education 
of  the  laity.  What  facilities  were  offered  in  the  episcopal, 
parish,  and  palace  schools,  and  in  the  monasteries  before 
the  formal  establishment  of  the  schools  for  externs,  what 
was  the  effect  of  this  establishment,  and  its  significance 
as  indicating  the  presence  of  large  numbers  of  pupils  in 
the  monastic  schools  and  the  necessity  of  caring  for  them, 
are  questions  which  demand  even  greater  attention  than 
those  referring  to  the  lay  teachers  and  professions  them¬ 
selves.  Care  has  been  taken  to  treat  only  of  those  points 
in  connection  with  individual  schools  which  were  of 
rather  general  application,  or  typical  of  certain  countries 
or  periods.  This  was  called  for  by  the  order  followed  in 
the  chapters  which  required  that  the  European  world  of 
the  time  be  kept  in  view,  however  much  the  accomplish¬ 
ments  of  a  great  personal  factor  like  Charlemagne  or 
Alfred  the  Great  might  be  emphasized. 

The  precise  nature  of  the  education  given  the  laity,  al¬ 
though  an  important  and  interesting  question  in  itself, 
has  not  been  treated  here  even  for  the  period  which  fol¬ 
lowed  the  formal  establishment  of  the  school  for  externs, 
when  young  laymen  and  clerics  were  separated  from  the 
monks.  Before  that  legal  provision  was  made  the  ele¬ 
mentary  education  whether  in  the  monastery,  the  episco¬ 
pal,  or  the  parish  school,  was  apparently  the  same  for  all 
students.  It  became  differentiated  when  instruction  in  the 


8 


PREFACE 


fine  arts,  in  law,  and  in  medicine  was  introduced.  It  was 
not  thought  necessary  to  include  it  here  when  the  chief 
purpose  was  to  show  that  the  educational  advantages  of 
the  time  were  not  denied  to  laymen.  Another  interesting 
and  pertinent  question,  the  education  of  girls  not  prepar¬ 
ing  for  the  cloistral  life,  is  not  included  in  the  disserta¬ 
tion  as  here  published,  although  occasional  references  are 
made  to  it. 

A  bibliography  of  the  works  consulted  and  referred  to 
in  the  text  is  appended,  with  the  editions  noted  to  which 
the  author  had  access. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  FIFTH  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES. 

The  last  stronghold  of  paganism  in  the  Roman  Empire 
was  the  school.  Long  after  the  conflict  of  the  pagan  State 
with  the  Christian  Church  had  subsided  the  antagonism 
of  the  public  school  continued.  At  times  it  was  an  open 
fight,  again  an  opposing  influence  to  the  struggling 
Church.  The  emperors  who  had  first  liberated  the 
Church,  and  emancipated  her  subjects,  did  not  remove  this 
obstacle  to  her  progress.  Those  who  were  of  Christian 
convictions  would  not  interfere  with  a  widespread  and 
effective  instrument  for  the  maintenance  of  the  civil 
power.  Their  training  and  the  traditions  of  their  office 
made  them  conservative,  loath  to  interfere  with  the  exist¬ 
ing  order,1  and  they  contented  themselves  with  ruling 
that  nothing  objectionable  to  Christians,  such  as  religious 
ceremonies  and  rites,  be  continued  in  the  schools.  Pagan 
instructors  were  still  allowed  to  teach  and  very  few  Chris¬ 
tians  were  decorated  with  the  official  titles  of  rhetoricians 
and  grammarians.2  Even  in  the  new  university  of 
Constantinople,  founded  by  Constantine  the  Great,  pagan 
as  well  as  Christian  teachers  were  officially  employed. 

The  last  futile  attempt  to  rehabilitate  pagan  culture 
was  made  through  the  schools.  The  Christians  who  were 
the  most  serious  obstacle  to  the  scheme  were  expressly 
forbidden  to  hold  positions  as  instructors  and  even  to 
apply  themselves  as  students.3  The  Galileans  could  not 
conscientiously  worship  at  the  altar  of  Minerva;  they 

1Marion,  Histoire  de  l’Eglise.  I,  488.  Paris,  1906. 

2Lalanne,  Influence  des  Peres  de  l’Eglise  sur  1’education  publique,  58. 
Paris,  1850. 

3Allard,  Julien  E’Apostat,  IE  360.  Paris,  1903.  (Discussion  as  to 
whether  Christians  as  students  were  forbidden.) 


10  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

could  return  to  their  churches  and  interpret  Matthew  and 
Luke,  Julian  had  said,  and  despite  the  protests  of  Chris¬ 
tian  bishops,  some  of  whom,  like  Gregory  Nazianzen,  had 
been  his  fellow  students  at  the  University  of  Athens,  the 
ruling  prevailed  until  the  champion  of  the  Hellenic  gods 
was  himself  vanquished. 

It  was  only  when  the  system  of  State  schools  had  been 
hopelessly  shattered  that  the  Christian  Church  found  her¬ 
self  free  to  follow  her  plans  of  school  organization  and 
development.  When  the  last  stronghold  of  paganism  fell 
in  the  East,  the  new  stronghold  of  the  Christian  educa¬ 
tional  forces  sprang  up  in  the  West.  The  School  of 
Athens  was  closed  by  imperial  decree  in  529,  and  that 
same  year  Monte  Cassino  opened.4  In  that  same  eventful 
year  also  the  bishops  of  Gaul  met  in  council  at  Vaison, 
and  passed  their  famous  decree  for  the  establishment  of 
parish  schools  throughout  their  jurisdiction.5 

The  primitive  Church,  prompted  by  her  mission  to 
teach  all  men,  very  early  enlisted  the  school  among  her 
working  forces.  Her  immediate  needs,  and  the  circum¬ 
stances  of  time  and  place,  tended  to  foster  the  types  of 
schools  which  represented  her  first  educational  efforts. 
To  instruct  the  converts  from  paganism  the  catechetical 
and  catechumenal  schools  were  provided;  to  combat  the 
heretics  and  the  infidels  she  encouraged  the  philosophical 
schools  like  those  of  Origen  and  Justin  Martyr;  to  pre¬ 
pare  servants  for  the  sanctuary  the  episcopal  or  cathedral 
schools  came  into  existence.  Christian  children  needed  to 
be  instructed  in  virtue  as  well  as  in  wisdom,  and  when 
free  to  do  so  the  Church  had  sought  that  provision  be 
made  for  them. 

St.  Chrysostom  furnishes  evidence  of  the  decline  of 
primitive  fervor  in  the  Christian  family  of  the  fourth  cen¬ 
tury  by  his  contention  that  the  domestic  circle  was  no 
longer  capable  of  supplying  the  proper  religious  and 


4Sandys,  History  of  Classical  Scholarship.  Cambridge.  1906. 

5Mansi,  Collectio  Amplissima  Conciliorum,  vol.  8.  Parisiis,  1901. 


THE  FIFTH  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES 


11 


moral  training  for  the  children.  Pagan  society  and. en¬ 
vironment  had  affected  the  Christian  home,  and  the  care 
and  diligence  of  former  days  in  instructing  the  children 
in  virtue  had  disappeared  to  an  alarming  extent.  Under 
these  circumstances  attendance  at  the  pagan  or  Jewish 
schools  was  unquestionably  fraught  with  the  greatest 
danger  for  Christian  faith  and  morals,  and  although  he 
and  others  of  the  Fathers  had  studied  under  pagan  mas¬ 
ters,  he  directed  parents  to  send  their  children  to  those 
who  would  diligently  serve  their  spiritual  as  well  as  their 
intellectual  wants.6 

The  anchorites  and  cenobites  of  the  East  had  responded 
to  this  need  of  the  time  and  undertaken  to  educate  Chris¬ 
tian  children.  Those  whom  they  received  as  pupils  into 
their  communities  were  not  necessarily  candidates  for  the 
religious  life.  Some  of  them  were  orphans  who  were 
given  the  saving  protection  of  Christian  surroundings; 
others  were  received  from  their  parents  in  the  presence 
of  witnesses  that  they  might  be  instructed  in  Christian 
virtue.  No  doubt  the  hope  was  entertained  both  by  the 
parents  and  the  monks  that  the  child  would  eventually 
offer  himself  for  service  in  the  monastery,  but  no  irrev¬ 
ocable  pledge  was  made  at  that  time  either  by  the  child 
or  by  the  parents.  The  matter  of  entering  the  order  or  of 
taking  vows  was  deferred  until  the  subject  attained  the 
proper  age  to  decide  for  himself.  The  immediate  aim  in 
receiving  the  children  was  to  educate  them,  to  train  them 
to  lives  of  Christian  virtue.  Those  who  proved  their 
fitness,  and  manifested  the  desire,  could  later  elect  to 
return  to  the  world,  to  enter  the  monastery  or  the  her¬ 
mit’s  cell.7 

The  monks  of  the  West  were  also  engaged  in  this  phase 
of  education  long  before  the  establishment  of  Monte  Cas- 
sino  or  the  promulgation,  in  529,  of  the  great  constitution 


6Pat.  Gr.  Migne  XL  VII,  349.  Adversus  oppugnatores  vitse  monastics. 
Ad  patrem  fidelem.  Lalanne,  167. 

7Rule  of  Basil,  Pat.  Gr.  XXIX ;  Rule  of  Pachomius  and  Commentary. 
Pat.  Cat.  XXIII,  70. 


12  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

of  monasticism,  the  Benedictine  Rule.  The  most  illus¬ 
trious  examples  of  this  are  furnished  by  the  monastic 
institutions  of  Gaul,  both  those  of  men  and  of  women.  In 
that  territory  where  for  two  centuries,  the  third  and  the 
fourth,  the  pagan  schools  had  reached  their  highest  de¬ 
velopment  and  produced  some  of  their  ripest  scholars, 
the  Christian  schools  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  grew 
in  power  and  increased  in  number  in  a  degree  propor¬ 
tionate  to  the  decline  of  their  antagonists.  The  control 
of  education  then  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy, 
and  the  work  consequently  of  preparing  youths  for  life 
in  the  cloister  or  in  the  world  became  an  established  in¬ 
stitution  in  the  early  Church  of  Gaul. 

At  various  times  students  were  also  received  into  the 
monasteries  who  prepared  for  the  secular  clergy,  but 
these  in  the  period  under  consideration  were  exceptional, 
for  the  episcopal  or  cathedral  schools  amply  provided  for 
them.  The  latter  type  of  school  flourished  at  this  time 
in  almost  every  episcopal  city  of  the  Christian  world  and 
was  especially  efficient  in  the  West.8  While  the  principal 
aim  of  the  bishops  in  establishing  them  was  to  prepare 
levites  for  the  sanctuary,  other  students  were  not  denied 
admission.  Judging  from  the  curriculum  followed  in  the 
early  episcopal  schools  of  Gaul,  and  from  the  number  of 
lay  teachers  engaged  (sometimes  these  were  converted 
rhetoricians),  a  considerable  portion  of  the  students 
would  seem  to  have  had  no  intention  of  entering  the 
clerical  state.  Converts  were  instructed  there  and,  in 
Merovingian  days,  when  the  bishops  became  proprietary 
lords  with  the  duty  of  providing  education  for  all,  it  was 
but  natural  that  they  should  first  equip  their  own  school 
for  general  educational  purposes.  The  famous  schools 
of  Arles,  Paris,  Poitiers,  Bourges,  Clermont,  Vienne, 
Chalons-sur-Saone  and  Gap  were  well  attended  when  the 
State  schools  fell  into  decline.9 


8Cubberley,  Syllabus  of  Lectures,  I.  59.  New  York,  1902.  (In  614  there 
were  112  bishoprics  in  Frankland  alone.) 

9Denk,  Geschichte  des  Gallo-Frankischen  Unterrichts,  191.  Mainz,  1892. 


THE  FIFTH  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES 


13 


The  parish  also  supplied  an  important  educational  in¬ 
stitution.  The  decree  of  the  Council  of  Vaison,  529,  that 
pastors  should  establish  schools  and  undertake  the  in¬ 
struction  of  the  young,  is  significant  not  only  for  the  ter¬ 
ritory  immediately  concerned  but  for  the  reference  it 
makes  to  the  custom  already  prevailing  in  Italy  and  there 
producing  good  results.  It  had  been  fruitful  in  fostering 
vocations  to  the  priestly  state,  and  that  undoubtedly  was 
one  of  the  chief  aims  of  the  bishops  of  Gaul  in  urging  its 
imitation.  There  is  a  warning  in  the  canon,  however,  that 
those  who  desire  to  take  up  the  married  state  be  given  all 
freedom  to  do  so.  The  canon  follows : 

“Hoc  enim  placuit  ut  omnes  presbyteri  qui  sunt  in  pa- 
rochiis  constituti  secundum  consuetudinem,  quam  per  to- 
tam  Italiam  satis  salubriter  teneri  cognovimus,  juniores 
lectores,  quantoscumque  sine  uxore  habuerint,  secum  in 
domo,  ubi  ipsi  habitare  videntur,  recipiant:  et  eos  quo- 
modo  boni  patres  spiritaliter  nutrientes,  psalmos  parare, 
divinis  lectionibus  insistere,  et  in  lege  Domini  erudire 
contendant:  ut  et  sibi  dignos  successores  provideant,  et 
a  Domino  praemia  aeterna  recipiant.  Cum  vero  ad  aeta- 
tem  perfectam  pervenerint,  si  aliquis  eorum  pro  carnis 
fragilitate  uxorem  habere  voluerit,  potestas  ei  ducendi 
conjugium  non  negetur.”10 

While  this  text  is  of  the  greatest  historical  importance 
for  recording  the  official  sanction  of  the  presbyteral  or 
parish  school,  the  impression  must  not  be  taken  that  no 
other  evidences  remain  of  earlier  institutions  of  this  kind. 
In  the  second  century  a  parish  school  was  maintained  at 
Edessa,  where  the  priest  Protogenes  taught  little  children 
reading,  writing,  singing,  and  the  elements  of  Christian 
Doctrine.* 11  Nor  does  the  text  imply  that  no  parish 
schools  existed  in  that  part  of  the  Church,  for  in  the  pre¬ 
ceding  century  one  is  found  at  Rennes  (480)  which  does 


10Mansi,  Coll.  Amp.  Concil.  vol.  8. 

11Stockl.  Geschichte  der  Padagogik,  78.  Mainz,  1876. 


14  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

not  seem  to  have  been  monastical  in  organization,  and 
whose  curriculum  embracing  reading,  writing,  arithmetic 
and  religion,  indicates  its  elementary  character.12 

With  the  spread  of  the  monks  the  cloister  eventually 
supplied  the  chief  means  of  education  for  the  laity.  The 
children  of  the  nobility  and  of  the  poor  attended  these 
schools  for  purely  educational  purposes,  and  many  of 
them  at  the  completion  of  their  courses  returned  to  their 
homes.  They  came  at  times  in  great  numbers  to  the  mon¬ 
asteries  of  men  and  women,  and  their  formation  com- 
sumed  nearly  the  entire  time  of  the  religious.  Muteau 
says  that  at  Arles,  where  two  hundred  nuns  were  occu¬ 
pied  in  copying  MSS.,  open  school  was  kept  for  the 
neighborhood  ( ecoles  ouvertes).  At  Laon  also  the 
learned  abbess,  St.  Austrude,  “ est  represente  comme 
ay  ant  consacre  sa  vie  a  la  culture  des  lettres,  ( exercens  se 
etiam  in  magisterio  doctrinae.’  "13  Yet  these  nuns  were 
discouraged  in  this  practice  by  St.  Caesarius  of  Arles 
who  gave  them  their  rule.  They  followed  in  their  com¬ 
munity  life  one  of  the  earliest  forms  of  the  formal 
cloister,14  and  the  bishop  deemed  it  wise  to  exclude  from 
their  houses  the  children  of  the  nobility  or  of  the  poor  who 
came  merely  for  their  education.  The  prohibition  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  children  could  be  provided  for 
elsewhere.  ((Et  si  fieri  potest,  aut  difficile,  ant  ulla  unquam 
in  monasterio  infantula  parvula,  nisi  ab  annis  sex  aut' 
septem,  quae  jam  et  litteras  discere  et  obedientiae  possit 
obtemperare,  suscipiatur.  Nobilium  filiae  sive  ignobili- 
um,  ad  nutriendum  aut  docendum,  penitus  non  accipi- 
antur.”15 

Gaul  was  a  responsive  soil  to  the  seed  of  monasticism. 
Since  the  foundations  of  Liguge  and  Marmoutier  by  St. 

12Denk,  194. 

13Muteau,  Ees  Ecoles  et  Colleges  en  Provence,  14.  Dijon,  1882. 

14Cath.  Encyclopedia,  “Cloister.” 

15Regula  ad  Virgines :  Pat.  Lat.  EXVII,  1108. 


THE  FIFTH  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES 


15 


Martin  of  Tours  in  the  fourth  century,  and  the  later  or¬ 
ganization  of  monastic  life  by  John  Cassian,  the  cloister 
institutions  had  spread  with  remarkable  rapidity.  The 
monks  were  not  only  numerous,  as  when,  for  instance,  two 
thousand  accompanied  the  remains  of  St.  Martin  to  the 
tomb,  but  deeply  spiritual  and  enthusiastic  to  place  within 
the  reach  of  others  the  blessings  which  they  enjoyed  in 
this  new  form  of  spiritual  endeavor.  They  received  their 
spirit  as  well  as  their  organization  largely  from  Cassian 
who  learned  the  principles  of  the  cenobitic  life  from  the 
celebrated  Fathers  of  the  desert.  He  had  lived  with  the 
monks  at  Bethlehem  and  the  hermits  in  Egypt,  and  had 
come  into  close  contact  with  St.  Chrysostom,  by  whom  he 
was  ordained  a  deacon.  He  embodied  in  his  rule  many 
of  the  principles  of  the  Eastern  ascetics  and  perpetuated 
their  traditions  in  regard  to  education.  His  Institutes 
were  used  by  St.  Benedict  in  drawing  up  the  constitution 
of  his  order,  and  his  Collations  were  recommended  by 
him  as  spiritual  reading  for  the  monks.16  Cassian’s  work 
was  in  short  for  Gaul  what  Benedict ’s  was  at  a  later  date 
for  the  monasteries  of  Europe. 

The  claims  for  the  extent  of  education  provided  by  the 
religious  of  these  early  cloisters,  those  of  men  and  of 
women,  and  for  the  laity  as  well  as  for  the  clergy,  do  not 
seem  extravagant  when  the  customs  prevailing  in  the 
Orient  are  remembered,  and  the  fact  recalled  that  Cassian 
desired  to  propagate  them  in  the  West.  He  had  lived  in 
the  Eastern  and  Egyptian  monasteries  as  guest  and  tem¬ 
porary  pupil  of  the  great  Fathers  of  the  spiritual  life 
then  in  charge ;  he  had  witnessed  the  good  effects  of  the 
custom  then  in  vogue  of  allowing  the  laity  to  be  present  at 
these  instructions,  for,  besides  the  children  who  attended 
for  their  education,  many  of  their  elders  visited  them  for 
retreats,  and  although  not  forming  part  of  the  community 


16Pat.  Lat.  XUX,  L. 


16  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

enjoyed  the  advantage  of  instruction  in  the  principles  of 
the  spiritual  life.17 

The  outer  and  inner  departments  of  the  monastery 
came  to  be  recognized  at  an  early  period  in  the  history 
of  monasticism  in  Gaul.  There  was  no  legislation,  it  is 
true,  in  regard  to  the  separation  of  the  classes  of  students, 
but  the  prohibition  of  St.  Caesarius  shows  that  both 
classes  of  children  presented  themselves  for  instruction, 
and  they  were  practically  designated.  He  had  allowed  the 
nuns  to  accept  the  “  oblati,”  those  who  were  offered  as 
future  subjects  of  the  monastery,  and  prohibited  the  re¬ 
ception  of  those  whose  purpose  there  was  merely  educa¬ 
tional.  The  fact  that  his  successor  Aurelian  was  obliged 
to  settle  the  age  for  the  reception  of  children,  making  it 
ten  years  instead  of  six  or  seven,  incidentally  attests  the 
eagerness  of  parents  to  place  their  offspring  with  the  re¬ 
ligious,  some  even  desiring  to  do  so  with  their  infants.18 

The  Rule  of  St.  Benedict  appeared  about  530,  and  its 
more  than  rapid  circulation  in  the  monastic  world  evi¬ 
dences  at  once  the  wide  diffusion  of  the  monasteries,  the 
eagerness  of  the  monks  for  a  more  systematic  life  and 
better  organization,  and  the  attention  of  all  to  education. 
It  is  said  that  in  twenty-five  years  it  had  affected  all 
Christian  Europe.  The  educational  significance  of  its 
rapid  spread  is  better  realized  when  it  is  recalled  that  St. 
Maurus,  and  others  like  St.  Columbanus  who  were  af¬ 
fected  by  it,  interpreted  its  provisions  in  favor  of  more 
extensive  literary  and  educational  pursuits.19  Although 
the  Rule  does  not  speak  of  the  cloistral  school  explicitly, 
nor  of  the  lay  and  clerical  students,  it  mentions  the  work 
of  education  and  the  requirements  necessary  in  the  prepa¬ 
ration  of  boys  for  the  order.  Certainly  all  who  applied 
were  not  accepted  as  subjects  and  it  was  not  long  before 

17Commentary  on  Rule  of  Cassian  in  Migne,  Pat.  Lat.  up  supra. 

18Denk,  196. 

19Sandys,  I,  453. 


THE  FIFTH  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES 


17 


the  time  of  probation  was  extended  by  ecclesiastical  law, 
making  it  necessary  for  the  yonng  of  both  sexes  to  un¬ 
dergo  a  period  of  trial  of  at  least  one  year  before  they 
could  be  regarded  as  members  of  the  novitiate.20 

The  remarkable  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  monas¬ 
teries  continued  throughout  the  whole  of  the  sixth  cen¬ 
tury.  Nowhere  on  the  Continent  is  this  better  shown 
than  in  Gaul.  In  that  century  owing  to  the  impetus  given 
by  St.  Maurus,  the  disciple  of  St.  Benedict,  there  were 
eighty  foundations  in  the  valley  of  the  Saone  and  the 
Rhine,  ninety-four  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  Loire,  fifty- 
four  from  the  Loire  to  the  Vosges,  and  ten  from  the 
Vosges  to  the  Rhine.21  The  Benedictine  movement  then 
advanced  to  other  countries :  St.  Martin  of  Deume  carried 
the  new  institution  to  Spain,  and  St.  Augustine  to  Eng¬ 
land.  The  monasteries  of  North  Britain  had  long  before 
thrived  and  grown  even  in  the  fifth  century  to  great  pro¬ 
portions.22  Italy  had  seen  many  other  foundations  be¬ 
fore  that  of  Monte  Cassino — twenty-two  monasteries  in 
the  City  of  Rome  accepted  the  Benedictine  Rule  almost 
as  soon  as  it  appeared — and  Africa,  St.  Augustine  attests, 
was  already  in  possession  of  her  monasteries  as  well  as 
episcopal  schools.23 

Ireland  at  this  time  was  a  veritable  land  of  schools  and 
scholars.  In  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  her  monasteries 
were  world  renowned  as  institutes  of  learning,  and  in  the  v 
seventh  and  eighth  a  constant  stream  of  students  came 
from  the  Continent  to  learn  theology,  Scripture,  and  clas¬ 
sic  literature  from  the  great  Irish  scholars.  Famous 
for  their  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek,  the  Irish 
schools  were  preparing  in  this  epoch  for  that  generation 
of  teachers  who  were  shortly  to  invade  Europe,  and  dis- 


20Epistles  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  I,  50  in  Pat.  Lat.  XLIX. 
21Marion,  II,  138. 

22Drane,  Christian  Schools  and  Scholars,  I,  48.  London,  1867. 
23Marion,  I,  573. 


18  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

tinguish  themselves  as  philosophers  and  teachers  in  both 
public  and  private  schools.24 

The  foundations  of  Armagh  by  St.  Patrick,  of  Kildare 
by  St.  Brigid,  were  emulated  both  as  schools  and  as  mon¬ 
asteries  by  the  efforts  of  St.  Enda  of  Aran,  St.  Finian  of 
Clonard,  St.  Brendan  of  Clonfert  before  St.  Comgall 
founded  the  famous  school  of  Bangor  or  St.  Columbanus 
led  his  Irish  monks  to  Luxeuil  in  France,  and  Bobbio  in 
Italy.  From  the  latter  we  have  the  terse  description  of 
the  daily  work  in  every  monastery:  “Ergo  quotidie  je- 
junandum  est,  sicut  quotidie  orandum  est,  quotidie  la - 
borandum ,  quotidieque  est  legendum.”  Dr.  Healy  writ¬ 
ing  of  the  monasteries  generally,  and  of  the  Irish  in  par¬ 
ticular,  says: 

“Fasting  and  prayer,  labor  and  study,  are  the  daily 
tasks  of  the  monks  in  every  monastery.  How  patiently 
and  unselfishly  that  toil  was  performed  the  history  of 
Europe  tells.  The  monks  made  roads,  cleared  the  for¬ 
ests,  and  fertilized  the  desert.  Their  monasteries  in  Ire¬ 
land  were  the  sites  of  our  cities.  To  this  day  the  land 
about  the  monastery  is  well  known  to  be  the  greenest  and 
best  in  the  district ;  and  it  was  made  fertile  by  the  labors 
of  the  monks.  They  preserved  for  us  the  literary  treas¬ 
ures  of  antiquity;  they  multiplied  copies  of  all  the  best 
and  newest  works;  they  illuminated  them  with  the  most 
loving  care.  They  taught  the  children  of  the  rich  and 
poor  alike;  they  built  the  Church  and  the  palace;  they 
were  the  greatest  authors,  painters  and  architects,  since 
the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire.  They  were  the  physi¬ 
cians  of  the  poor  when  there  were  no  dispensary  doctors ; 
they  served  the  sick  in  the  hospitals  and  at  their  homes. 
And  when  the  day’s  work  was  done  in  the  fields  or  in  the 
study,  they  praised  God,  and  prayed  for  men  who  were 
unable  or  unwilling  to  pray  for  themselves.  Ignorant  and 


240zanam,  A.  F.  Oeuvres,  v.  4,  p.  528.  Paris  (1872). 


THE  FIFTH  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES 


19 


prejudiced  men  have  spoken  of  them  as  an  idle  and  use¬ 
less  race.  They  were  in  reality  the  greatest  toilers,  and 
the  greatest  benefactors  of  humanity  that  the  world  has 
ever  seen.”25 


25Healy,  Ireland’s  Ancient  Schools  and  Scholars,  102.  Dublin,  1893. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  SEVENTH  AND  EIGHTH  CENTURIES 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  set  forth  here  the  content  of 
monastic  education,  but  rather  to  indicate  the  extent  of 
the  provision  made  in  the  monasteries  for  the  training  of 
the  laity.  Before  noting  the  other  forms  of  scholastic 
institutions  then  flourishing,  it  may  be  well,  however,  to 
state  that  the  leading  and  dominating  idea  in  the  Chris¬ 
tian  school  of  that  period  was  to  give  a  religious  and 
sound  moral  training.  That  had  been  the  concern  of  the 
Church  from  the  beginning  of  her  educational  work.  The 
parental  duty  was  expressed  by  St.  John  to  Electa  and 
her  family  in  commendation  of  their  steadfastness  in  the 
Faith.  “I  was  exceeding  glad  that  I  found  of  thy  chil¬ 
dren  walking  in  the  truth,  as  we  have  received  a  com¬ 
mandment  from  the  Father.  ’ ,26  When  it  became  necessarv 
to  provide  the  means  for  Christian  parents  to  train  their 
children  intellectually  without  danger  to  faith  or  morals, 
the  course  of  instruction  in  the  monasteries  was  regu¬ 
lated  to  meet  that  end.  The  religious  and  moral  training 
came  first — les  bonnes  moeurs  avant  les  belles  lettres . 
The  children  were  prepared  to  retain  their  Christian 
spirit  amid  pagan  surroundings,  and  by  the  example  of 
their  lives  aid  their  spiritual  leaders  in  the  conquest  of 
souls.  Their  instruction  was  not  merely  religious;  the 
literary  and  practical  elements  were  not  neglected,  and 
gradually  there  was  developed  in  the  cloister  that  sys¬ 
tem  of  education  which  lasted  throughout  ten  centuries 
and  supplied  the  means  of  preparation  for  the  various 
careers  open  to  the  young,  even  the  military. 

From  the  eighth  to  the  twelfth  century  the  monasteries 


26II  John,  4. 


THE  SEVENTH  AND  EIGHTH  CENTURIES 


21 


eclipse  all  other  forms  of  Christian  education,  and  it 
can  be  broadly  stated  that  their  history  from  the  sixth 
to  the  sixteenth  century  is  the  history  of  education.27 
They  were  not,  however,  the  only  schools  existing  during 
that  period,  nor  were  the  episcopal  and  presbyteral. 
The  imperial  schools  of  ancient  Rome  subsisted  to  the  end 
of  the  seventh  century  in  Gaul,  Italy,  Spain,  and  every 
part  of  the  Roman  world.  In  Italy  lay  teachers  not  only 
taught  in  these  public  schools,  but  they  also  maintained 
private  institutions.  They  had  done  this  even  when  the 
civil  law  forbade  it,  and  as  the  State  schools  gradually 
fell  away  these  private  venture  schools  became  more 
firmly  established.  Some  of  them  like  the  public  schools, 
were  subsidized  by  the  municipalities,  and  they,  in  one 
form  or  another,  never  ceased  to  exist  throughout  the 
entire  Middle  Ages.  They  have  been  regarded  as  the 
link  connecting  the  old  Roman  education  with  the  uni¬ 
versities,  for  until  the  eleventh  century  these  lay  teachers 
pursued  their  courses  side  by  side  with  the  ecclesiastical 
schools.  Naturally  they  would  seem  to  have  been  for 
the  especial  benefit  of  the  laity,  for  here  in  Italy  the 
episcopal  and  parish  schools  offered  all  necessary  advan¬ 
tages  for  the  scholastic  preparation  of  clerics,  but  the 
lay  schools  also  had  some  students  who  later  became 
priests.28 

In  ancient  Ireland  a  somewhat  similar  condition  ex¬ 
isted.  In  addition  to  the  monasteries  scattered  over  the 
island,  and  educating  hundreds,  and,  at  times,  thousands 
of  students,  both  clerical  and  lay,29  there  were  lay  schools 


27Monroe,  Text-Book  in  the  History  of  Education,  245.  New  York,  1909. 

28Ozanam,  La  Civilisation  au  Cinquieme  Siecle,  I,  260 ;  II,  366. 

29For  number  of  students,  cf.  Joyce,  P.  W.,  Social  History  of  Ancient 
Ireland,  I,  409.  London,  1903.  For  number  of  monasteries  and  monks,  cf. 
Gougaud,  Dom  Louis.  Les  Chretientes  Celtiques,  82.  Paris,  1911.  For  lay 
students  in  monasteries,  we  might  cite  an  example  “where  such  students 
are  mentioned  incidentally: — We  read  in  the  Four  Masters,  under  A.  D. 
645,  that  Ragallach,  King  of  Connaught,  was  assassinated.  At  this  time 
his  second  son,  Cathal,  was  a  student  in  the  College  of  Clonard ;  and  when 
he  heard  of  his  father's  murder,  he  and  a  party  of  twenty-seven  of  his 
fellow  students,  all  young  laymen  from  Connaught,  sallied  forth  from 
the  college,  and  coming  to  the  house  of  the  assassin,  beheaded  him.”  Joyce, 
ibid. 


22  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

and  a  lay  professorate,  and  it  is  believed  that  in  this 
period  laymen  generally  had  better  opportunities  for 
obtaining  a  higher  or  university  education  than  they  had 
in  any  other  country  of  Western  Europe.  Large  num¬ 
bers  of  clerics  and  laymen  came  from  England  and  the 
Continent  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries,30  and 
when  later,  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  the  Irish 
scholars  went  abroad,  4  4  they  were  at  once  entrusted  with 
the  highest  offices  in  the  Continental  schools,  and  proved 
themselves  to  be  not  only  amongst  the  ablest  theologians 
of  the  time,  but  also  the  first  men  of  that  age  in  Greek 
and  Latin  literature.”31  In  the  lay  schools  more  than 
in  the  monasteries  the  Gaelic  language  was  taught,  and 
“not  merely  the  language,  but  also  the  history,  the  an¬ 
tiquities,  the  laws,  and  the  literature  of  the  nation.  ’ * 

The  learned  professions  of  Poetry,  Law  and  History 
which  then  existed  and  were  open  to  the  laity,  had,  so 
to  speak,  their  recruiting  schools.  The  bards,  who  also 
had  their  schools,  were  not  included  in  the  first  class, 
because  they  had  not  received  the  systematic  training 
that  the  profession  of  the  poet  required.  Each  profes¬ 
sion  had  its  grades  or  degrees,  that  of  Poetry,  for  in¬ 
stance,  consisted  of  seven,  and  the  course  for  learners 
extended  over  twelve  years.  The  Brelions  represented 
the  profession  of  Law,  and  the  Chroniclers  that  of  His¬ 
tory,  and  each  body  had  its  various  grades  and  distinc- 


30Speaking  of  the  yellow  plague  of  664,  the  Venerable  Bede  says:  “This 
pestilence  did  no  less  harm  in  the  island  of  Ireland.  Many  of  the  nobility 
and  of  the  lower  ranks  of  the  English  nation  were  there  at  that  time,  who 
in  the  days  of  Bishops  Finan  and  Colman  forsaking  their  native  island, 
retired  thither,  either  for  the  sake  of  divine  studies,  or  of  a  more  continent 
life:  and  some  of  them  presently  devoted  themselves  to  a  monastic  life: 
others  chose  rather  to  apply  themselves  to  study,  going  about  from  one 
master’s  cell  to  another.  The  Scots  willingly  received  them  all,  and  took 
care  to  supply  them  with  food,  as  also  to  furnish  them  with  books  to  read, 
and  their  teaching,  gratis.”  Historia  Ecclesiastica  Gentis  Anglorum  b.  iii, 
c.  xxvii.  Translation  of  J.  A.  Giles,  London,  1892.  Many,  and  perhaps 
most  of  these  hermits  were  not  priests.  Cfr.  Gougaud,  op.  cit.,  83. 

31Healy,  Ireland’s  Ancient  Schools  and  Scholars,  597.  Turner,  Irish 
Teachers  in  the  Carolingian  Revival,  Catholic  University  Bulletin,  XIII, 
382,  567.  Sandys.  History  of  Classical  Scholarship,  I,  451.  Taylor,  Classi¬ 
cal  Heritage  of  the  Middle  Ages,  44.  New  York,  1901. 


THE  SEVENTH  AND  EIGHTH  CENTURIES  23 

tions.  “It  is  quite  clear,’ ’  says  Dr.  Healy,  “from  various 
references  in  our  Annals,  and  in  the  Brehon  Code,  that 
these  three  professions  were  kept  quite  distinct  from 
the  sixth  to  the  twelfth  century,  and  that  they  were 
taught  by  different  professors,  and  in  different  schools — 
these  professors  being  generally  but  not  always  laymen.  ’  ’ 
The  school  of  Tuaim  Drecain,  founded  in  the  early  part 
of  the  seventh  century  by  St.  Bricin,  is  the  earliest  re¬ 
ferred  to  in  the  records  of  the  time,  but  the  writings  of 
twelve  or  thirteen  ancient  Gaelic  scholars  give  ground 
for  the  conclusion  that  these  schools  flourished  in  the 
sixth  and  seventh  centuries.32 

“A  lay  college,”  says  Dr.  Joyce,  “generally  comprised 
three  distinct  schools,  held  in  three  different  houses  near 
each  other;  a  custom  that  came  down  from  pagan  times. 
We  are  told  that  Cormac  Mac  Art,  King  of  Ireland  from 
A.  D.  254  to  277,  founded  three  schools  at  Tara,  one  for 
the  study  of  military  science,  one  for  law,  and  one  for 
general  literature.  St.  Bricin ’s  College  at  Tomregan 
(Tuaim  Drecain),  near  Ballyconnell  in  Cavan,  founded  in 
the  seventh  century,  which  though  conducted  by  an  1 
ecclesiastic,  was  the  type  of  the  lay  schools,  comprised 
one  school  for  law,  one  for  classics,  and  one  for  poetry 
and  general  Gaelic  learning,  each  school  under  a  special 
druimoli  or  head  professor.  (O’Curry,  Manners  and 
Customs  of  the  Ancient  Irish,  I,  92.)  And  coming  to  a 
much  later  period,  we  know  that  in  the  fifteenth  century 
the  O’Clery’s  of  Donegal  kept  three  schools — namely, 
for  literature,  for  history,  and  for  poetry.”33 

The  nobility  enjoyed  still  another  avenue  to  learning 
in  addition  to  the  monastery  and  episcopal  schools.  The 
palace  was  often  the  scene  of  school  activity,  and  some 
of  the  most  distinguished  ecclesiastics  and  laymen  of 
the  early  Church  of  Gaul  were  educated  there.  The  best 


320p.  cit.,  600. 
S3Op.  cit.,  420. 


24  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

equipped  teachers  were  retained  by  the  nobility  for  these 
academies  which,  in  Gaul,  date  from  the  reigns  of  the 
sons  of  Clovis  I,  and  if  townships  vied  with  one  another 
to  obtain  the  services  of  distinguished  grammarians  and 
rhetoricians,  the  nobles  were  even  more  jealous  of  enjoy¬ 
ing  in  their  courts  the  presence  of  the  saintly  and  the 
learned.34 

Many  young  clerics  were  attached  to  the  courts  of  the 
Franks,  and  engaged  in  chanting  the  divine  offices.  The 
palace  served  for  them  as  a  training  school.  They  learned 
to  perform  their  duties  in  the  choir,  and  they  also  pur¬ 
sued  the  studies  which  completed  the  ecclesiastical  edu¬ 
cation  of  the  time.  The  Merovingians  furthermore,  like 
the  Anglo-Saxons  and  the  Lombards,  followed  the  ancient 
custom  of  the  Germans,  to  which  Tacitus  alludes,35  of 
receiving  into  their  palaces  the  sons  of  other  noblemen 
whom  they  treated  as  members  of  the  household,  edu¬ 
cating  and  rearing  them  as  they  did  their  own  children. 
The  youths  were  the  wards  of  their  protector ;  they  acted 
as  his  aides  in  military  expeditions;  they  graced  his 
court  festivities;  they  were  also  representatives  of  their 
families  and  pledges  of  fidelity  to  the  king  or  prince. 
As  their  future  careers  were  assured  while  they  held 
the  favor  of  the  court,  a  place  in  the  palace  school  was 
eagerly  sought  for  the  ambitious  and  promising  sons  of 
the  nobility.  Here  in  a  training  school  for  public  life  in 
Church  and  State,  the  pupils  were  instructed  in  the  sacred 
and  profane  sciences;  they  learned  to  speak  and  write 
Latin,  and  some  of  them  acquired  skill  in  versification; 
the  laymen  as  well  as  the  clerics  were  made  familiar 
with  music,  and  for  those  whose  calling  demanded  it, 


34Ozanam,  La  Civilisation  Chretienne  chez  les  Francs,  IV,  501.  In  plac¬ 
ing  this  institution  as  far  back  as  the  reigns  of  the  sons  of  Clovis  I,  we 
are  not  unaware  of  the  contention  of  some  that  it  had  its  real  beginnings 
in  the  time  of  Charlemagne.  Cfr.  Maitre,  Les  Ecoles  Episcopales  et 
Monastiques  de  L’Occident,  Chap.  IV.  Parisy  1866. 

35Germania,  XIII. 


THE  SEVENTH  AND  EIGHTH  CENTURIES  25 

exercise  in  military  tactics  was  provided.  History, 
Roman  Law,  and  the  national  traditions  entered  into  the 
courses  generally  given  in  these  palace  schools.36  St. 
Ouen,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  St.  Chrodegang,  Bishop 
of  Metz,  and  St.  Benedict  of  Aniane,  went  forth  from 
the  palace  school  and  distinguished  themselves  in  public 
careers  before  being  called  to  the  service  of  the  Church. 
This  institution,  of  course,  did  not  receive  in  this  early 
period  the  same  distinction,  nor  attain  to  the  same  degree 
of  efficiency,  as  in  the  reign  of  Charlemagne. 

Meanwhile  the  monasteries  are  responsible  for  two 
conspicuous  phases  of  educational  activity ;  one  carrying 
the  light  of  the  Gospel  and  civilization  to  the  barbarians,, 
the  other  preserving  amid  the  ravages  of  time  the  treas- 
ures  of  learning.  St.  Boniface  represents  the  first  phasey 
and  the  Venerable  Bede,  the  other.  Both  the  products 
of  English  monasticism,  they  reflect  at  once  the  ideal  of 
Christian  education,  and  the  degree  of  attainment 
achieved  at  that  time  in  the  schools.  Saints  and  scholars, 
they  labored  not  for  themselves  but  for  the  glory  of  the 
truth  of  God,  and  the  spread  of  His  Kingdom  on  earth. 
The  Venerable  Bede  never  ceased  to  study,  to  teach,  and 
to  write,  until  the  last  hours  of  his  life,  and  in  the  peace¬ 
ful  enclosure  of  his  monastery  manifested  that  same  in¬ 
dustry  and  energy  to  transmit  to  his  brethren  and  pos¬ 
terity  the  blessings  of  learning  which  characterized  the 
work  of  St.  Boniface  as  the  indefatigable  missionary. 

The  work  of  St.  Boniface  that  interests  us  here  was  the 
establishment  and  organization  of  schools  everywhere 
throughout  the  wide  field  of  his  missionary  labors.  In 
Friesland,  Thuringia,  Bavaria,  or  in  Gaul,  wherever  he 
sought  to  plant  the  seed  of  faith,  or  to  build  up  the  prev¬ 
iously  established  Church,  he  attended  also  to  the  founda- 


S6For  discussion  of  the  Palace  School  under  the  Merovingians,  cfr. 
Revue  des  Questions  Historiques,  EXI,  490,  by  E.  Vacandard;  EXXIV, 
552,  by  A.  S.  Wilde;  LXXVI,  549,  by  E.  Vacandard. 


26  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

tion  or  reformation  of  monasteries  and  schools.  He  in¬ 
duced  great  numbers  of  monks  to  follow  him,  and  he  ob¬ 
tained  the  services  of  Sts.  Walburga,  Thecla,  and  Lioba 
from  England  to  assist  in  the  establishment  of  convents 
for  women  and  schools  for  girls.37  In  a  letter  to  Lioba 
he  sanctioned  her  taking  of  a  girl  into  the  monastery 
for  the  purposes  of  instruction.  One  of  his  chief  en¬ 
actments  in  the  first  German  synod,  held  in  743,  was  to 
make  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict  the  official  guide  for  the 
religious  in  his  province.38  As  a  direct  result  of  his 
labors  in  Bavaria  alone  over  twenty-nine  monasteries 
were  either  founded  or  reopened  within  the  space  of  fifty 
years.  Fulda,  the  great  monastery  of  North  Germany, 
was  founded  under  his  direction  by  his  disciple,  St. 
Sturm. 

The  correspondence  of  the  great  Apostle  of  Germany 
with  the  Holy  See  was  almost  incessant.  None  was  more 
careful  or  anxious  than  he  to  do  all  things  according  to 
the  will  of  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  and  in  consequence  his 
projects  had  all  the  necessary  papal  sanction  even  before 
he  was  placed  over  the  Church  in  Germany.  He  also 
maintained  a  continuous  correspondence  with  the  lead¬ 
ers  of  the  Church  in  England.  By  means  of  it  he  had 
obtained  many  of  his  colaborers  on  the  missions,  religious 
for  the  cloisters,  and  in  a  general  way  many  such  valu¬ 
able  auxiliaries  and  necessities  as  books,  vestments,  and 
•church  supplies.  He  in  turn  exercised  an  influence  on 
the  affairs  of  the  English  Church.  Through  his  advice 
to  Cuthbert,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  his  corre¬ 
spondence  with  Ethelbald,  King  of  Mercia,  the  Council  of 
Cloveshoe  was  convened  in  747  for  the  correction  of 
abuses  and  the  restoration  of  ecclesiastical  discipline — a 
council  of  singular  importance  in  the  history  of  English 
schools. 


37Drane,  Christian  Schools  and  Scholars,  II,  151.  Eckenstein,  Woman 
tinder  Monasticism,  137.  Cambridge,  1896. 

38Mansi,  Coll.  Con.  XII,  365. 


THE  SEVENTH  AND  EIGHTH  CENTURIES 


27 


The  interests  of  learning  and  the  schools  were  foremost 
in  the  minds  of  the  bishops  who  attended.  Canon  VII, 
for  instance,  is  a  strong  injunction  directed  to  those  in 
charge  of  the  schools  to  rekindle  in  the  hearts  of  their 
subjects  a  greater  devotion  to  study  and  teaching.  They 
fear  for  the  welfare  of  letters  and  especially  for  the 
sacred  sciences,  and  they  are  gravely  concerned  for  the 
future  preparation  of  those  who,  as  teachers  of  the  faith¬ 
ful,  are  to  work  for  the  “  lucrum  animarum  laudemque 
regis  aeterni.”  Consequently,  while  urging  attention  to 
.all  types  of  schools  represented  by  those  of  the  bishops, 
the  priests,  the  abbots  and  abbesses,  they  advocate  in 
the  strongest  terms  the  education  of  the  boys.  “Proinde 
coerceantur,  et  exerceantur  in  scholis  pueri  ad  dilec- 
tionem  sacrae  scientiae,  ut  bene  eruditi  inveniri  possint 
.ad  omnimodam  ecclesiae  Dei  utilitatem.  ’  9  The  compre¬ 
hensive  nature  of  the  educational  uplift  intended  by  the 
Fathers  can  be  seen  from  the  text  of  the  canon.  All 
schools  are  included — those  for  boys  and  those  for  girls, 
although  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  chief  concern  of  the 
bishops  is  for  those  schools  where  young  men  were  pre¬ 
pared  to  discharge  the  offices  of  clerics  and  priests  in 
the  service  of  the  Church.  The  canon  is  as  follows : 

“Septimo  decreverunt  condicto,  ut  episcopi,  abbates, 
atque  abbatissae  *  *  *  studeant,  et  diligenti  cura 

provideant,  ut  per  familias  suas  lectionis  studium  in- 
desinenter  in  plurimorum  pectoribus  versetur,  et  ad 
lucrum  animarum  laudemque  regis  aeterni  multorum 
vocibus  innotescat.  Nam  dictu  dolendum  est,  quod  his 
temporibus  perpauci  inveniantur,  qui  ex  intimo  corde 
sacrae  scientiae  rapiantur  amore,  et  vix  aliquid  elaborare 
in  discendo  voluerint:  quin  potius  a  juvenili  aetate  vani- 
tatibus  diversis  et  inanis  gloriae  cupiditatibus  occupan- 
tur:  atque  praesentis  vitae  instabilitatem  plusquam 
sacrarum  seripturarum  assiduitatem  vagabunda  mente 
sequuntur.  Proinde  coerceantur  et  exerceantur  in  scholis 
pueri  ad  dilectionem  sacrae  scientiae :  ut  per  hoc  bene 


28  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

eruditi  inveniri  possint  ad  omnimodam  ecclesiae  Dei 
utilitatem:  nec  sint  rectores  terrenae  tam  avidi  opera- 
tionis  ut  domus  Dei  desolatione  spiritalis  ornaturae 
vilescat.”39 

In  the  great  revival  of  learning  which  began  towards 
the  end  of  the  century  the  works  of  Bede  and  St.  Boni¬ 
face  are  not  entirely  lost  to  view.  The  institutions  with 
which  they  were  connected,  and  the  men  whom  they  in¬ 
fluenced  were  preparatory  causes  of  the  movement  then 
undertaken  by  the  Emperor,  Charles  the  Great,  and  the 
English  scholar,  Alcuin.  One  of  Bede ’s  pupils  and  closest 
friends  was  Egbert,  who  became  the  archbishop  of  York 
in  732,  and  founded  the  cathedral  school  in  which  Alcuin 
was  educated.40  St  Boniface  had  anointed  and  crowned 
Pepin,  the  father  of  Charlemagne,  and  had  obtained  from 
him  the  royal  protection  of  so  many  of  the  monasteries^ 
which,  like  Fulda,  were  to  be  the  effective  agents  of  the 
new  scholastic  reform. 


39Mansi,  Coll.  Con.  XII,  397. 

40West,  Alcuin  and  the  Rise  of  Christian  Schools,  31,  New  York,  1892.. 


CHAPTER  III 

REVIVAL  UNDER  CHARLEMAGNE  AND  ALCUIN 

Alcuin  held  the  office  of  scholasticus  in  the  cathedral 
school  of  York  when  he  was  invited  by  Charlemagne  to 
assume  charge  of  the  Palace  School.  His  fame  as  the 
great  schoolmaster  of  Britain  to  whom  numerous  schol¬ 
ars  from  the  Continent  resorted  for  instruction  and 
training,  had  undoubtedly  reached  the  imperial  court 
before  Charlemagne  met  him  in  Italy,  about  the  year 
780.  Two  years  later  the  negotiations  were  completed 
for  his  transfer  to  the  Continent,  and  his  installation  as 
“Master  of  the  Palace  School.” 

The  Court  then  resided  at  Aachen,  and  when  Alcuin 
arrived  with  his  three  companions  and  assistants,  he 
found  an  eager  group  of  pupils  awaiting  him.  The  king 
and  queen,  their  two  sons  and  three  daughters,  the  king’s 
sister,  Gisela,  the  courtiers  and  scions  of  noble  families 
then  connected  with  the  Court,  came  anxiously  under  his 
tutelage.  Alcuin  with  the  aid  of  his  assistants,  succeeded 
not  only  in  meeting  the  requirements  of  this  hetero¬ 
geneous  class  of  pupils,  but,  furthermore,  inflamed  them 
with  a  real  love  for  learning,  and  an  enthusiasm  for  ex¬ 
tending  its  delights  to  others.  The  School  of  the  Palace 
steadily  increased  in  the  number  of  its  pupils,  and  at¬ 
tained  a  worthy  fame  throughout  Europe.  Those  seri¬ 
ously  in  search  of  knowledge,  along  with  those  ambitious 
for  positions  in  the  royal  service,  endeavored  to  enter  its 
classes,  and,  in  consequence,  many  of  the  most  learned 
and  distinguished  men  of  the  time  were  educated  there. 
Among  the  students  are  recorded  the  names  of  Einhard,  * 


30  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

the  biographer  of  Charlemagne,41  a  layman  who  re¬ 
ceived  his  earlier  education  in  the  monastery  of  Fulda; 
Riculf,  who  became  archbishop  of  Mainz;  Arno,  the 
archbishop  of  Salzburg ;  and  Theodulf,  bishop  of  Orleans. 

The  king  had  found  in  Alcuin  a  rare  counselor  as  well 
as  instructor,  and  because  of  his  devotion  to  learning 
and  his  confidence  in  Alcuin,  ardently  embraced  a  plan 
for  the  restoration  of  schools  throughout  the  realm. 
With  the  Palace  School  as  head  of  the  system,  he  sought 
to  revivify  all  educational  institutions  down  to  the  ele¬ 
mentary  or  parish  schools.  For  this  end,  in  787,  he  ad¬ 
dressed  a  capitulary  to  the  abbots  of  the  monasteries,  and 
to  all  the  bishops  of  Frankland,  expressing  his  regret 
over  the  decline  of  letters,  and  exhorting  them  to  pro¬ 
mote  the  spirit  of  study  and  the  work  of  teaching  in  their 
respective  communities.  The  decree  is  preserved  in  the 
form  of  a  letter  to  Baugulf,  the  abbot  of  Fulda.42  From 
the  context  it  appears  that  the  bishops  were  included  in 
the  decree,  but  in  all  probability  a  different  form  of  noti¬ 
fication  was  sent  to  them.  Charlemagne’s  concern  for 
a  stricter  observance  of  monastic  discipline,  a  more  wide¬ 
spread  devotion  to  the  study  of  letters,  and  the  art  of 
teaching  can  be  seen  from  the  text  of  the  capitulary 
which  is  here  reproduced.43  The  translation  is,  with 
some  modifications,  that  of  J.  Bass  Mullinger. 

4  4  Charles,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  King  of  the  Franks  and 
of  the  Lombards,  and  Patrician  of  the  Romans,  to  Bau¬ 
gulf,  Abbot,  and  his  whole  congregation,  also  to  our  faith- 

41Migne,  Pat.  Lat.  XCVTI 

“Migne,  Pat.  Lat.  XCVIII,  859;  Monumenta  Germaniae  Historical  Le- 
gum  II,  Capitul.  I,  79.  Boretius. 

48“Karolus,  gratia  Dei  Rex  Francorum  et  Longobardorum,  ac  Patricius 
Romanorum,  Baugulfo  Abbati  et  omni  congregationi,  tibi  etiam  com- 
missis  fidelibus  oratoribus  nostris,  in  omnipotentis  Dei  nomine  amabilem 
direximus  salutem.  Notum  igitur  sit  Deo  placitae  devotioni  vestrae,  quia 
nos  una  cum  fidelibus  nostris  consideravimus  utile  esse,  ut  episcopia  et 
monasteria  nobis,  Christo  propitio,  ad  gubernandum  commissa,  praeter 
regularis  vitae  ordinem  atque  sanctae  religionis  conversationem,  etiam 
in  litterarum  meditationibus,  eis  qui  donante  Domino  discere  possunt, 


REVIVAL  UNDER  CHARLEMAGNE  AND  ALCUIN 


31 


ful  committed  to  his  care,  in  the  name  of  God  Almighty, 
friendly  greeting.  Be  it  known  to  your  devotion  already 
pleasing  to  God,  that  in  conjunction  with  our  faithful 
we  have  considered  it  useful  that  there  he  in  the  bishop¬ 
rics  and  monasteries,  by  the  favor  of  Christ  committed 
to  our  care,  besides  the  observance  of  the  regular  life  and 
the  practice  of  holy  religion,  literary  studies,  each  to 
teach  and  learn  them  according  to  his  ability  and  the 
divine  assistance.  For  as  the  observance  of  the  rule 
promotes  good  morals,  so  diligence  in  learning  and  teach¬ 
ing  gives  order  and  elegance  to  sentences,  and  those  who 
desire  to  please  God  by  right  living  ought  not  to  neglect 
to  please  him  by  right  speaking.  For  it  is  written:  ‘By 
thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justified,  and  by  thy  words  thou 
shalt  be  condemned.’  (Matt.  XII,  37.)  And  although 
right  doing  be  preferable  to  mere  knowing,  nevertheless, 
the  knowledge  of  what  is  right  precedes  right  action. 
Everyone  should,  therefore,  strive  to  understand  what  he 
desires  to  accomplish,  and  this  understanding  will  be  the 
fuller  in  proportion  as  the  tongue  in  praising  Almighty 
God  is  freer  from  error.  If  false  speaking  is  to  be 
shunned  by  all  men,  how  much  the  more  is  it  to  be  shunned 
by  those  who  have  been  chosen  for  this  alone — that  they 

secundum  uniuscujusque  capacitatem,  docendi  studium  debeant  impendere. 
Qualiter  sicut  regularis  norma  honestatem  morum,  ita  quoque  docendi  et 
discendi  instantia  ordinet  et  ornet  seriem  verborum,  ut,  qui  Deo  placere 
appetunt  recte  vivendo,  ei  etiam  placere  non  negligant  recte  loquendo. 
Scriptum  est  enim :  ‘Aut  ex  verbis  tuis  justificaberis,  aut  ex  verbis  tuis 
condemnaberis.’  (Matt.  XII,  37.)  Quamvis  enim  melius  est  (sit)  bene 
facere  quam  nosse,  prius  tamen  est  nosse  quam  facere.  Debet  ergo  quisque 
discere  quod  optat  implere;  ut  tanto  uberius  quid  agere  debeat,  intelligat 
anima,  quanto  in  omnipotentis  Dei  laudibus  sine  mendaciorum  offendicu- 
lis  cucurrerit  lingua.  Nam  cum  omnibus  hominibus  vitanda  sint  men- 
dacia,  quanto  magis  illi  secundum  possibilitatem  declinare  debent  qui  ad 
hoc  solummodo  probantur  electi,  ut  servire  specialiter  debeant  veritati. 
Nam  cum  nobis  in  his  annis  a  nonnullis  monasteriis  saepius  scripta  diri- 
gerentur,  in  quibus  quod  pro  nobis  fratres  ibidem  commorantes  in  sacris 
et  piis  orationibus  decertarent,  significaretur,  cognovimus  in  plerisque 
praefatis  conscriptionibus  eorumdem  et  sensus  rectos  et  sermones  in- 
cultos:  quia  quod  pia  devotio  interius  fideliter  dictabat,  hoc  exterius, 
propter  negligentiam  discendi,  lingua  inerudita  exprimere  sine  repre- 
hensione  non  valebat.  Unde  factum  est  ut  timere  inciperemus  ne  forte, 
sicut  minor  erat  in  scribendo  prudentia,  ita  quoque  et  multo  minor  esset 


32  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


be  servants  of  the  truth!  During  recent  years  we  have 
often  received  letters  from  different  monasteries  informing 
us  that  at  their  sacred  services  the  brethren  offered  up 
prayers  on  our  behalf,  and  we  have  observed  that  the 
thoughts  contained  in  these  letters,  though  in  themselves 
most  just,  were  expressed  in  uncouth  language,  and  while 
pious  devotion  dictated  the  sentiments,  the  unlettered 
tongue  was  unable  to  express  them  aright.  Hence  there 
has  arisen  in  our  minds  the  fear  lest,  if  the  skill  to  write 
rightly  were  thus  lacking,  so  too  would  the  power  of 
rightly  comprehending  the  Sacred  Scriptures  be  far  from 
fitting,  and  we  all  know  that  though  verbal  errors  be 
dangerous,  errors  of  the  understanding  are  much  more 
so.  We  exhort  you,  therefore,  not  only  not  to  neglect  the 
study  of  letters,  but  to  apply  yourselves  thereto  with 
perseverance  and  with  that  humility  which  is  well  pleas¬ 
ing  to  God,  so  that  you  may  be  able  to  penetrate  with 
greater  ease  and  certainty  the  mysteries  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  For  as  these  contain  images,  tropes,  and 
similar  figures,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  the  reader 
will  arrive  far  more  readily  at  the  spiritual  sense  ac¬ 
cording  as  he  is  better  instructed  in  learning.  Let  there, 
therefore,  be  chosen  for  this  work  men  who  are  both  able 

quam  recte  esse  debuisset  in  sanctarum  scripturarum  ad  intelligendum 
sapientia.  Et  bene  novimus  omnes,  quia,  quamvis  periculosi  sint  errores 
verborum,  multo  periculosiores  sunt  errores  sensuum.  Quamobrem 
hortamur  vos  litterarum  studia  non  solum  non  negligere,  verum  etiam 
humillima  et  Deo  placita  intentione  ad  hoc  certatim  discere,  ut  facilius  et 
rectius  divinarum  scripturarum  mysteria  valeatis  penetrare.  Cum  autem 
in  sacris  paginis  schemata,  tropi,  et  caetera  his  similia  inserta  inveniantur, 
nulli  dubium  est  quod  ea  unusquisque  legens  tanto  citius  spiritualiter  intel- 
ligit,  quanto  prius  in  litterarum  magisterio  plenius  instructus  fuerit. 
Tales  vero  ad  hoc  opus  viri  eligantur,  qui  et  voluntatem  et  possibilitatem 
discendi  et  desiderium  habeant  alios  instruendi.  Et  hoc  tantum  ea  in¬ 
tentione  agatur,  qua  devotione  a  nobis  praecipitur.  Optamus  enim  vos, 
sicut  decet  Ecclesiac  milites,  et  interius  devotos  et  exterius  doctos  cas- 
tosque  bene  vivendo,  et  scholasticos  bene  loquendo ;  ut  quicumque  vos 
propter  nomen  Domini  et  sanctae  conversationis  noblitatem  ad  vivendum 
expetierit,  sicut  de  aspectu  vestro  aedificatur  visus,  ita  quoque  de  sapientia 
vestra,  quam  in  legendo  seu  in  cantando  perceperit,  instructus,  omnipo- 
tenti  Domino  gratias  agendo  gaudens  redeat.  Hujus  itaque  epistolae  ex- 
-emplaria  ad  omnes  suffragantes  tuosque  coepiscopos  et  per  universa  mon- 
jisteria  dirigi  non  negligas,  si  gratiam  nostram  habere  vis.” 


REVIVAL  UNDER  CHARLEMAGNE  AND  ALCUIN 


33 


and  willing  to  learn,  and  who  are  desirous  of  instructing 
others,  and  let  them  apply  themselves  to  the  work  with 
a  zeal  equalling  the  earnestness  with  which  we  recom¬ 
mend  it  to  them.  It  is  our  wish  that  you  may  be  what 
it  behooves  the  soldiers  of  the  Church  to  be, — religious 
in  heart,  learned  in  discourse,  pure  in  act,  eloquent  in 
speech;  so  that  all  who  approach  your  house  in  order  to 
invoke  the  Divine  Master  or  to  behold  the  excellence  of 
the  religious  life,  may  be  edified  in  beholding  you  and  in¬ 
structed  in  hearing  your  discourse  or  chant,  and  may 
return  home  rejoicing,  and  rendering  thanks  to  God  Al¬ 
mighty.  Fail  not  as  thou  regardest  our  favor  to  send  a 
copy  of  this  letter  to  all  thy  suffragans  and  to  all  of  the 
monasteries.”44 

One  could  scarcely  expect  saner  advice  as  to  the  means 
of  accomplishing  the  revival  in  the  chief  educational  in¬ 
stitutions,  the  monasteries  and  episcopal  schools.  Men 
were  wanted  who  had  “et  voluntatem  et  possibilitatem 
discendi,  et  desiderium  alios  instruendi.”  At  the  same 
time  Charlemagne  obtained  at  Rome  a  corps  of  instruc¬ 
tors  in  singing,  grammar,  arithmetic,  whom  he  brought 
to  Frankland  and  sent  to  several  monasteries  to  assist  in 
carrying  out  the  reform.45 

Other  capitularies  came  forth  as,  for  instance,  those  of 
789  and  804,  in  explanation  of  the  means  to  be  adopted 
in  order  to  comply  with  the  imperial  demands.  These 
were  addressed  to  the  monks  and  the  secular  clerics,  and 
affected  the  manner  of  their  discipline,  studies,  and 
preparation  of  candidates  for  orders;  but  a  capitulary 
of  789  has  an  especially  interesting  order  in  regard  to 
the  elementary  school.  It  says  that  every  monastery 
must  have  its  school,  and  there  boys  are  to  be  taught 
grammar,  arithmetic,  singing,  music,  and  the  psalter. 

44Mullinger,  Schools  of  Charles  the  Great,  97.  New  York,  1911. 

<5Jaffe,  Monumenta  Carolina,  343.  (Bibliotheca  Rerum  Germanicarum, 
W.) 


34  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

The  books  placed  in  their  hands  are  to  be  of  correct  com¬ 
position,  and  to  be  kept  in  good  condition.  This  regu¬ 
lation  appears  under  the  chapter  “De  ministris  altaris 
et  de  scola,”  and  is  as  follows: — 

“Sed  et  hoc  flagitamus  vestram  almitatem  (altitu- 
dinem)  ut  ministri  altaris  Dei  suum  ministerium  bonis 
moribus  ornent,  seu  alii  canonici  observent  eorum  or- 
dines,  vel  monachi  propositum  consecrationis.  Obse- 
cramus,  ut  bonam  et  probabilem  habeant  conversa- 
tionem,  sicut  ipse  Dominus  in  evangelio  praecepit: 
‘Sic  luceat  lux  vestra  coram  hominibus,  ut  videant 
opera  vestra  bona,  et  glorificent  patrem  vestrem,  qui 
in  coelis  est : ’  ut  eorum  bona  conversatione  multi  pro- 
trahantur  ad  servitium  Dei.  Et  non  solum  servilis 
conditionis  infantes,  sed  etiam  ingenuorum  filios  ag- 
gregent  sibique  socient.  Et  ut  scolae  le gentium  puer- 
orum  fiant;  psalmos,  notas,  cantus,  compotum,  gram- 
maticam  per  singula  monasteria  vel  episcopias,  et 
libros  Catholicos  bene  emendate  (emendatos) ;  quia 
saepe  dum  bene  aliquid  Deum  rogare  cupiunt,  sed  per 
inemendatos  libros  male  rogant.  Et  pueros  vestros 
non  sinite  eas  vel  legendo  vel  scribendo  corrumpere. 
Et  si  opus  est  evangelium  et  psalterium  et  missale 
scribere,  perfectae  aetatis  homines  scribant  cum  omni 
diligentia. ’  ,46 

Another  capitulary  of  802  enjoins  that  “every  one 
should  send  his  son  to  study  letters,  and  that  the  child 
should  remain  at  school  with  all  diligence  until  he  should 
become  well  instructed  in  learning.  ’ ,47 

The  exact  extent  of  the  observance  of  these  decrees  can 
perhaps  never  be  determined.  How  many  monasteries, 
not  previously  conducting  schools,  were  led  to  do  so  in 
compliance  with  the  orders  of  the  king  is  impossible  to 
tell,  owing  to  the  condition  of  the  records  of  the  time,  but 
the  following  facts  lead  one  to  infer  that  there  was  a 


48Migne,  Pat  Lat.  XCVII,  517. 

47‘‘Ut  unusquisque  filium  suum  litteras  ad  discendum  mittat,  et  ibi  cum 
omni  solicitudine  permaneat  usque  dum  bene  instructus  perveniat.”  Capi- 
tula  Examinationis  Generalis,  12.  Mon.  Ger.  Hist.  Legum,  II,  Cap.  I,  235. 
(Boretius.) 


REVIVAL  UNDER  CHARLEMAGNE  AND  ALCUIN 


35 


rather  general  obedience  to  authority  in  this  respect. 
In  a  few  years  the  court  had  moved  to  many  different 
places,  from  Aachen  to  Tliionville,  thence  to  Worms,  to 
Mainz,  and  finally  to  Frankfort;  Alenin  and  others  had 
many  opportunities  to  inspect  the  monasteries  far  and 
near,  and  to  ascertain  their  observance  of  the  orders,  and 
when,  in  796,  he  retired  to  the  monastery  of  Tours,  he 
expressed  no  dissatisfaction  over  the  results  of  the  plan 
of  reform. 

On  the  other  hand,  sufficient  evidence  remains  to  show 
that  in  many  of  the  dioceses  a  real  restoration  of  schools 
took  place,  and  a  movement  resulted  which  meant  much 
for  the  establishment  of  secondary  and  elementary 
schools.  In  the  diocese  of  Orleans  the  bishop  Theodulf, 
a  former  pupil  of  the  Palace  School,  and  apparently  Al- 
cuin’s  successor  as  state  minister  of  education,  endeav¬ 
ored  to  carry  out  all  the  details  of  the  capitularies  affect¬ 
ing  education.  He  made  his  episcopal  school  the  equal 
of  any  in  the  realm,  and,  in  a  capitulary  addressed  to  the 
clergy  of  his  diocese,  embodied  a  famous  decree  on  the 
establishment  of  elementary  schools — a  decree  which  will 
reappear  in  many  later  Church  councils,  and  which  was 
for  a  long  time  erroneously  attributed  to  the  Sixtli 
Ecumenical  Council  of  Constantinople,  held  in  681.  The 
priests  of  city  and  country  were  ordered  to  have  schools 
for  the  children  of  their  parishes,  and  to  instruct  the  lit¬ 
tle  ones  in  all  charity,  remembering  that  4  4  they  that  are 
learned  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament: 
and  they  that  instruct  many  to  justice,  as  stars  for  all 
eternity.  ’ ’  They  were  also  forbidden  to  exact  fees  from 
the  pupils  or  to  accept  any  remuneration  except  what 
might  be  voluntarily  offered  by  the  parents.  The  decree 
follows : — 

“Presbyteri  per  villas  et  vicos  scholas  habeant.  Et 
si  quilibet  fidelium  suos  parvulos  ad  discendas  litteras 
eis  commendare  vult,  eos  non  rennant  suscipere  et 
docere;  sed  cum  summa  caritate  eos  doceant,  atten- 


36  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

dentes  illud  qnod  scriptnm  est :  Qui  autem  docti 
fuerint,  fulgebunt  quasi  splendor  firmamenti:  et  qui 
ad  justitiam  erudiunt  multos  fulgebunt  quasi  stellae 
in  perpetuas  aeternitates.  Cum  ergo  eos  docent,  nihil 
ab  eis  pretii  exigant,  nec  aliquid  ab  eis  accipiant;  ex- 
cepto,  quod  eis  parentes  eorum  caritatis  studio  sua 
voluntate  obtulerint. ’  ,48 

In  canons  I  and  II  of  the  capitulary  the  learned  bishop 
gives  a  beautiful  exhortation  to  the  clergy  to  renew  their 
piety  and  their  devotion  to  study.  “Oportet  vos  et 
assiduitatem  habere  legendi,  et  instantiam  orandi. 

Haec  sunt  enim  arma,  lectio  videlicet,  et  oratio, 
quibus  diabolus  expugnatur:  haec  sunt  instrumenta  qui- 
bus  aeterna  beatitudo  acquiritur:  his  armis  vitia  com- 
primuntur :  his  alimentis  virtutes  nutriuntur.  ’ ,49  The  of¬ 
fice  of  teaching  is  placed  in  the  most  inspiring  and  stimu¬ 
lating  light.  “Hortamur  vos  paratos  esse  ad  docendas 
plebes.”  The  faithful  also  are  admonished  lest  they  be 
found  wanting  in  their  duties  towards  the  children,  and 
the  latter  throughout  their  entire  period  of  instruction 
must  be  held  to  the  practice  of  obedience  and  all  Chris¬ 
tian  virtues. 

These  free  parish  schools  established  by  Theodulf  en¬ 
couraged  the  bishops  and  nobility  to  found  and  to  endow 
institutions  for  gratuitous  education.  In  some  of  the 
monasteries  it  was  customary  to  accept  fees  from  the 
scholars  of  the  exterior  school,  and  gradually  these 
schools  became  rather  distinguished  for  the  number  of 
wealthy  pupils  they  received.  The  poor,  in  consequence, 
were  loath  to  attend  them.  A  striking  protest  was  raised 
against  this  practice  in  the  monastery  of  Tours  by  Amal- 
ric,  archbishop  of  the  diocese.  Since  the  time  of  Alcuin 
the  “schola  externa”  had  greatly  developed,  and  the  ma¬ 
terial  possessions  of  the  monastery  made  it  one  of  the 
richest  in  France.  The  prelate  wanted  to  see  all  possible 
barriers  to  the  reception  of  the  poor  removed,  and  in  843 

48Migne,  CV,  196. 

49Ibid.,  canon  II. 


REVIVAL  UNDER  CHARLEMAGNE  AND  ALCUIN 


37 


gave  the  monks  a  generous  donation  to  be  used  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  poor  students.  Charles  the  Bald 
confirmed  his  action  for  free  education  by  a  capitulary.50 

William,  the  abbot  of  St.  Benigne,  in  the  same  century 
opened  in  his  monastery  a  free  school  where  the  scholars 
were  boarded  and  clothed  gratuitously.  The  general 
sentiment  was  that  an  education  could  not  be  bought,  nor 
learning  taxed.  The  abbey  of  St.  Peter,  in  Salzburg, 
bore  this  inscription  over  its  portals :  “Discere  si  cupias, 
gratis,  quod  quaeris,  habebis, ’  ’ — a  line  from  the  poem  of 
Alcuin,  “De  via  duplici  ad  scholam  et  cauponam. ’ ,51 

Other  bishops  throughout  Prance  followed  the  example 
of  Theodulf  and  commanded  priests  to  give  free  instruc¬ 
tion  to  the  children  of  their  parishes,  or  they  emulated 
Betto,  the  bishop  of  Langres,  who  founded  public  schools 
in  his  episcopal  city  and  diocese.52  Some  slight  record 
of  their  various  endeavors  is  found  in  the  decrees  and 
canons  of  the  provincial  councils  and  diocesan  synods 
of  that  century.  In  the  council  of  Chalons-sur-Saone, 
held  in  813,  an  unmistakable  effort  was  made  to  continue 
the  movement  begun  by  Charlemagne,  both  for  the  bene¬ 
fit  of  the  clergy  and  the  laity.  The  third  canon  of  that 
council  reads : 

“Oportet  etiam,  ut  sicut  dominus  Imperator  Carolus, 
vir  singularis  mansuetudinis,  fortitudinis,  prudentiae, 
justitiae,  et  temperantiae  praecepit,  scholas  constituant, 
in  quibus  et  litteras  solertia  disciplinae,  et  sacrae  scrip- 
turae  documenta  discantur:  et  tales  ibi  erudiantur,  qui- 


50Maitre,  Les  Ecoles  Episcopates  et  Monastiques,  49,  203. 

^Migne,  Pat.  Lat.  Cl,  757;  Mullinger,  134. 

62Of  Betto,  Muteau  says :  “Ce  fut  dans  les  dernieres  annees  du  VIII 
siecle  seulement  que  Betto,  eveque  de  Langres,  le  bienfaiteur  de  Saint- 
Etienne,  ‘establit  dans  Langres  et  dans  son  diocese  des  escholes  publiques 
et  des  maistres  pour  enseigner  la  grammaire,  la  rhetorique  et  l’arithme- 
tique,  Interpretation  des  escritures  saintes,  la  musique  et  le  plain  chant 
et  aultres  arts  liberaux.  L’on  adjoute  que  par  les  memes  ordres  du  roy 
Ton  v  dressa  une  espece  d’academie  avec  privilesges  et  exemption  pour 
les  exercices  militaires,  comme  de  tirer  Tare  et  de  l’arbaleste,  de  manier 
une  espee  et  un  bouclier,  en  un  mot,  de  s’exercer  aux  armes.’  Extrait 
d’un  ancien  manuscrit  cite  par  Francois  Gauthier  dans  sa  notice  histor. 
sur  le  college  de  Langres.”  Les  Ecoles  et  Colleges  en  Province,  23. 


38  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

bus  merito  dicatur  a  Domino:  ‘Vos  estis  sal  terrae:’  et 
qui  condimentum  plebibus  esse  valeant,  et  quorum  doc- 
trina  non  solum  diversis  haeresibus,  verum  etiam  anti- 
christi  monitis,  et  ipsi  anticliristo  resistatur:  ut  merito 
de  illis  in  laude  ecclesiae  dicatur:  ‘Mille  clypei  pendent 
ex  ea,  omnis  armatura  fortium.’  ”53 

A  council  of  Paris,  convened  in  829,  did  not  hesitate 
to  suggest  to  Louis  the  Pious,  the  successor  of  Charle¬ 
magne,  that  to  perpetuate  the  traditions  of  his  father  in 
regard  to  education,  and  to  further  his  own  projects,  the 
most  feasible  plan  would  be  to  found  three  or  more  public 
schools  in  important  centers  of  the  Empire.  The  monas¬ 
teries  were  evidently  not  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  the 
time  in  the  field  of  higher  learning,  and  churchmen  were 
anxious  that  a  movement  so  conspicuously  inaugurated 
as  that  of  Charlemagne  should  be  continued  under  better 
circumstances.  The  memorial  of  the  bishops  to  the  em¬ 
peror  contains  their  suggestion.  “Similiter  obnixe  ac 
simpliciter  vestrae  celsitudini  suggerimus,  ut  morem 
paternum  sequentes,  saltern  in  tribus  congruentissimis 
imperii  vestri  locis,  scholae  publicae  ex  vestra  auctori- 
tate  fiant :  ut  labor  patris  vestri  et  vester  per  incuriam, 
quod  absit,  labefactando  non  depereat.  Quoniam  ex  hoc 
facto  et  magna  utilitas,  et  honor  sanctae  Dei  ecclesiae,  et 
vobis  magnum  mercedis  emolumentum,  et  memoria 
sempiterna  accrescet.  ’ ,54 

The  church  of  Pheims  was  governed  in  the  middle  of 
this  century  by  the  learned  archbishop  Hincmar,  who  in 
his  directions  to  the  deans  and  clerics  appointed  to  assist 
him  in  the  canonical  inspection  of  the  parishes  showed  a 
special  solicitude  for  the  school.  Each  pastor  was  ex¬ 
pected  to  have  a  cleric  with  him  who  could  teach  in  the 
school  and  assist  in  the  services  of  the  church.  “Si 
habeat  clericum,  qui  posset  tenere  scholam,  aut  legere 

53Hardouin  Acta  Conciliorum,  IV,  1032.  Paris,  1714. 

'“Mansi,  Coll.  Con.  XIV,  599. 


REVIVAL  UNDER  CHARLEMAGNE  AND  ALCUIN 


39 


epistolam,  aut  canere  valeat,  prout  necessarium  sibi 
videtur. ’  ,55 

The  archbishop  of  Orleans  in  858  had  legislated  to  the 
same  effect.  In  the  canon  which  he  had  promulgated  it 
can  be  seen  that  the  priest  was  responsible  for  the  train¬ 
ing  of  the  school  teacher,  and  the  character  of  the  educa¬ 
tion  supplied  by  the  school.  “Ut  unusquisque  presbyter 
suum  habeat  clericum  quern  religiose  educare  procuret. 
Et  si  possibilitas  illi  est,  scholam  in  eccelsia  sua  habere 
non  negligat :  solerterque  caveat,  ut  quos  ad  erudiendum 
suscipit,  caste  sinceriterque  nutriat.”56 

Herardus,  the  archbishop  of  Tours,  in  that  same  year, 
858,  issued  a  similar  decree : — “Ut  scholas  presbyteri  pro 
posse  habeant,  et  libros  emendatos.”57  In  all  of  these 
canons  of  councils,  and  capitularies  of  bishops,  the  par¬ 
ents  and  sponsors  of  children  are  reminded  of  their 
duty  to  rear  and  properly  to  educate  the  young.  The 
capitulary  of  Louis  the  Pious,  which  appeared  about  the 
year  825,  seems  to  have  been  the  model  for  many  that 
came  later.  It  reads :  “Ut  parentes  filios  suos,  et  patrini 
eos  quos  de  fonte  lavacri  suscipiunt,  erudire  summopere 
studeant:  illi,  quia  eos  genuerunt  et  eis  a  Domino  dati 
sunt :  isti,  quia  pro  eis  fideiussores  existunt.  ’ ,58  That  of 
Herardus  of  Tours  required  this  attention  from  the 
parent  and  godparent,  even  towards  the  very  young.  “Ut 
patres  et  patrini  filios  vel  filiolos  erudiant  et  enutriant: 
isti  quia  sunt  patres,  et  isti  quia  fideiussores.”59 

The  council  of  Rome,  called  by  Pope  Eugenius  II  in 
853,  acted  upon  the  question  for  the  direction  of  bishops 
of  the  universal  Church.  Learning  that  devotion  to  let¬ 
ters  and  the  sciences  had  fallen  away  in  certain  places, 
the  bishops  stipulated  that  in  all  the  dioceses  and  par¬ 
ishes  a  sufficient  number  of  teachers  should  be  established 

65Capitula  presbyteris  data,  XI.  Mansi,  Coll.  Con.  XV,  480. 

“Mansi,  XV,  506. 

57Hardouin,  Acta  Con.  V,  451. 

88Migne,  Pat.  Lat.  XCVII,  550. 

“Hardouin,  V,  452. 


40  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

who  would  assiduously  promote  the  study  of  the  liberal 
arts,  and  the  doctrines  of  the  Church.  Canon  XXXIV 
contains  this  decree: — “De  quibusdam  locis  ad  nos  refer- 
tur,  non  magistros,  neque  curam  inveniri  pro  studio 
litterarum.  Idcirco  in  universis  episcopiis,  subjectisque 
plebibus,  et  aliis  locis  in  quibus  necessitas  occurrerit, 
omnino  cura  et  diligentia  habeatur,  ut  magistri  et  doc- 
tores  constituantur :  qui  studia  litterarum,  liberaliumque 
artium  ac  sancta  habentes  dogmata,  assidue  doceant, 
quia  in  his  maxime  divina  manifestantur  atque  declaran- 
tur  mandata.”60 

This  great  mass  of  legislation  on  the  part  of  the 
Church  and  the  State  was  not  without  its  immediate 
effect  in  the  monastic,  episcopal,  and  parish  schools.  In 
the  first  mentioned  the  effect  can  best  be  seen  when  under 
Louis  the  Pious,  the  schools  for  externs  became  estab¬ 
lished  by  law,  and  when  with  their  great  growth  and  ex¬ 
pansion  of  courses,  the  episcopal  or  cathedral  schools 
were  overshadowed,  and  less  patronized  by  those  who 
intended  to  prepare  for  the  secular  priesthood.  Of  this 
enactment  and  its  consequences  we  shall  treat  later.  For 
the  present  we  may  remark  with  M.  Ravelet  as  an  indi¬ 
cation  of  the  conditions  existing  before  the  law  went 
into  effect:  “The  description  of  the  abbey  lands  of  St. 
Victor,  at  Marseilles,  drawn  up  in  814,  contains  mention 
of  the  sons  of  farmers  who  were  then  in  the  school,  and 
the  terms  of  the  Council  of  Vaison  and  of  the  Council 
of  Limoges,  in  1031,  tend  to  prove  that  the  hypothesis  of 
a  student  refusing  to  embrace  the  priesthood,  after  hav¬ 
ing  profitted  by  the  teaching  of  the  schools,  was  fully 
admitted.  Neither  must  we  imagine  that  the  schools 
attached  to  the  country  churches  of  this  period  were  sim¬ 
ply  seminaries.  Little  girls  frequently  attended  them, 
and  the  Bishop  of  Soissons,  in  889,  orders  that  they  be 
kept  apart  from  the  boys.  ’ ,61 

60Hardouin,  V,  61. 

aiRavelet — Blessed  John  Baptist  De  La  Salle,  14.  Paris,  1888. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  SCHOOL  FOE  EXTEENS 


The  numerous  capitularies  of  the  emperors  and  bishops 
and  the  canons  of  councils  and  synods,  quoted  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  give  unmistakable  evidence  that  in 
the  first  half  of  the  ninth  century  Church  and  State 
mutually  endeavored  to  continue  the  educational  revival 
begun  by  Charlemagne.  Louis  the  Pious  was  earnestly 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  learning,  and,  in  spite  of  the 
civil  wars  and  generally  disturbed  state  of  the  Empire 
during  his  long  reign  from  814  to  840,  he  accomplished 
much  for  the  better  organization  of  schools.  Like  his 
father,  Charlemagne,  he  engaged  a  distinguished  church¬ 
man  to  devise  and  execute  plans  for  the  betterment  of 
educational  conditions.  He  brought  to  the  service  of 
Church  and  State  the  indefatigable  and  energetic  St. 
Benedict  of  Aniane  whose  activities  in  the  capacity  of 
a  State  minister  of  education  affected  the  whole  educa¬ 
tional  system  of  the  Empire. 

Early  in  Louis’  reign  the  question  of  educating  the 
young  in  the  cloistral  schools  assumed  a  new  significance. 
The  monasteries  were  then  the  great  public  schools  for 
the  clergy  and  the  laity,  and  some  of  them  were  caring 
for  large  numbers  of  students.  The  work  of  educating 
and  rearing  so  many  was  a  tremendous  task  and  its 
demands  so  pressing  that  the  monastery  not  infrequently 
seemed  destined  to  become  a  school  or  college  rather 
then  the  spiritual  retreat  it  was  originally  intended  to 
be.  There  were  churchmen  who  realized  this,  and  being 
zealous  for  the  preservation  of  the  monastic  spirit  raised 
their  voices  against  education  on  such  a  scale  as  not 
being  the  proper  function  of  the  monastery.  They  be- 


42 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


lieved  that  it  interfered  with  the  quiet  necessary  in  a 
monastery  and  with  the  essential  practices  incumbent 
on  all  in  the  pursuit  of  spiritual  perfection,  and  they  did 
not  hesitate  to  ascribe  to  it  any  lack  of  religious  fervor 
or  decline  of  the  monastic  spirit.  In  support  of  their 
attitude  they  alleged  the  famous  rule  of  St.  Caesarius 
of  Arles  which  forbade  the  religious  to  receive  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  the  nobility  or  of  the  poor  into  the  cloister  for 
merely  educational  purposes.  Some  even  went  so  far  as 
to  disapprove  of  educating  in  the  cloister  the  “oblati,” 
viz.,  those  children  who  were  offered  to  God  as  candi¬ 
dates  for  the  religious  life,  maintaining  that  they  could 
be  instructed  and  prepared  for  their  calling  outside  the 
confines  of  the  cloister. 

It  is  not  difficult,  therefore,  to  understand  how  serious 
and  weighty  was  the  opposition  which  arose  against  the 
custom  of  receiving  into  the  cloister  those  who  had  no 
intention  of  becoming  monks,  young  clerics,  for  instance,  » 
who  were  preparing  for  the  secular  priesthood  and 
young  laymen  who  would  return  to  their  homes  upon 
the  completion  of  their  studies.  Neither  is  it  difficult  to 
appreciate  the  further  objection  which  was  raised  against 
another  feature  of  the  monastic  educational  system. 
Although  the  two  classes  of  students  were  distinguished 
one  from  the  other,  viz.,  the  “oblati”  and  those  not 
intending  to  become  monks,  all  were  accustomed  to  live 
together  in  the  cloister  and  to  receive  the  same  general 
training.  Those  zealous  for  a  better  monastic  spirit 
protested  against  this  custom.  They  pleaded  for  a  train¬ 
ing  that  would  more  definitely  prepare  the  young  re¬ 
ligious  for  their  future  careers,  insisting  that  since  their 
ends  in  life  were  far  different  from  those  of  the  other 
students  they  should  be  given  a  more  specialized  train¬ 
ing.  The  future  man  of  retirement  and  prayer  needed 
a  different  atmosphere  and  different  intellectual  train¬ 
ing  from  the  future  prince  or  statesman. 


THE  SCHOOL  FOR  EXTERNS 


43 


The  Assembly  of  Aachen  held  in  817,  which  has  been 
called  the  first  great  meeting  of  the  Benedictine  Abbots, 
acted  upon  this  question  very  decisively.  While  unwill¬ 
ing  to  allow  the  monasteries  to  discontinue  the  work 
of  education,  they  limited  and  defined  the  kind  of  train¬ 
ing  that  could  be  given  within  the  precincts  of  the 
cloister  or  the  inner  monastery.  They  would  only  per¬ 
mit  the  school  of  the  “oblati”  to  be  continued  there 
and  forbade  the  maintenance  of  any  other.  “Ut  scola 
in  monasterio  non  liabeatur  nisi  eorum  qui  oblati  sunt.  ’ ,62 
This  ruling  was  of  the  greatest  importance  for  the 
subsequent  education  of  both  the  clergy  and  the  laity. 
With  the  young  novices  segregated  in  a  separate  school 
it  became  possible  to  devise  the  more  special  training 
that  was  desired  for  them,  and  this  promised  much  for 
the  strengthening  of  the  monastic  spirit.  By  it,  however, 
the  monastery  for  the  time  ceased  to  be  a  public  school, 
and  if  the  ruling  had  been  allowed  to  remain  without 
permitting  of  other  provisions  for  public  education,  the 
opportunities  for  higher  learning  offered  to  the  secular 
clergy  and  the  laity  would  have  been  decidely  limited, 
because,  at  this  time,  the  episcopal  or  cathedral  schools 
were  affected  in  a  similar  way  by  ecclesiastical  legislation. 

At  the  episcopal  sees  the  bishops  and  the  clergy  were 
living  in  communities  which  resembled  the  common  life 
of  the  monasteries,  but  which  were  governed  by  a  rule 
drawn  up  for  them  by  St.  Chrodegang,  bishop  of  Metz. 
The  Council  of  Aachen  held  in  816, 63  in  endeavoring 
to  strengthen  the  spiritual  life  of  these  communities 
made  regulations  which  directly  affected  the  schools  con¬ 
nected  with  them.  By  an  enactment  of  this  council  the  pu¬ 
pils  were  segregated  from  the  other  members  of  the 


62Mon.  Ger.  Hist.  Legum  II,  Capitularia  I,  346. 

63  Date  often  given  as  817.  Cfr.  Mon.  Ger.  Hist.  L,egum  III,  Concilia 
II,  413. 


44  EDUCATION  OP  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


canonicate,64andonly  those  could  be  admitted  to  the  school 
who  were  candidates  for  the  canonical  life  of  the  cathe¬ 
dral  ;  young  men  preparing  for  the  parish  or  rural  clergy 
and  the  laity  were  denied  admission.63  It  was  not  long, 
therefore,  before  the  condition  of  schools  generally  was 
to  be  feared  for.  The  parish  clergy  could  not  be  as  well 
instructed  in  the  institutions  then  open  to  them  as  when 
allowed  to  attend  the  larger  schools  at  the  cathedrals, 
and  the  laity  with  these  institutions  and  the  monasteries 
closed  to  them  would  have  only  private  schools  and 
private  tutors  at  their  disposal. 

In  less  than  six  years,  however,  these  conditions  were 
changed.  The  bishops  assembled  at  Attigny  in  822 
publicly  regretted  their  failure  to  provide  sufficient 
educational  facilities  for  those  who  desired  to  enter  upon 
the  ecclesiastical  state,  and  pledged  themselves  to  re¬ 
newed  efforts  in  behalf  of  schools.  “Scolas  autem,  de 
quibus  hactenus  minus  studiosi  fuimus  quam  debueramus, 

omnino  studiosissimi  emendare  cupimus . ”  They 

decided  that,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  desired  to 

64  “Solerter  rectores  ecclesiarum  vigilare  oportet,  ut  pueri  et  adoles- 
centes,  qui  in  congregatione  sibi  commissa  nutriuntur  vel  erudiuntur,  ita 
jugibus  ecclesiasticis  disciplinis  constringantur,  ut  eorum  lasciva  aetas  et 
ad  peccandum  valde  proclivis  nullum  possit  repperire  locum,  quo  in  peccati 
f acinus  proruat.  Quapropter  in  hujuscemodi  custodiendis  et  spiritaliter 
erudiendis  tabs  a  praelatis  constituendus  est  vitae  probabilis  frater,  qui 
eorum  curam  summa  gerat  industria  eosque  ita  artissime  constringat, 
qualiter  ecclesiasticis  doctrinis  imbuti  et  armis  spiritalibus  induti  et  ec- 
clesiae  utilitatibus  decenter  parere  et  ad  gradus  eccelsiasticos,  quandoque 
digne  possint,  promovere.  Libuit  praeterea  ob  aedificationem  congruam 
et  instructionem  negotii,  de  quo  agitur,  quandam  sanctorum  patrum  sen- 
tentiam  huic  operi  inserere,  quae  ita  se  habet :  Prona  est  omnis  aetas  ab 
adolescentia  in  malum,  nihil  incertius  quam  vita  adolescentium.  Ob  hoc 
constituendum  oportuit,  ut,  si  quis  in  clero  puer  est  aut  adolescentes 
existunt,  omnes  in  uno  conclavi  atrii  commorentur,  ut  lubricae  aetatis 
annos  non  in  luxoria,  sed  in  disciplinis  ecclesiasticis  agant,  deputati  pro- 
batissimo  seniori,  quern  et  magistrum  doctrinae  et  testem  vitae  habeant, 
et  caetera.  His  ita  premissis  oportet,  ut  probatissimo  seniori  pueri  ad 
custodiendum,  licet  ab  alio  erudiantur,  deputentur.  Frater  vero,  cui  haec 
cura  committitur,  si  eorum  curam  parvipenderit  et  aliud  quam  oportet 
docuerit,  aut  eis  in  aliquo  cujuslibet  laesionis  maculam  ingesserit,  severis- 
sime  correptus  ab  officio  amoveatur  et  fratri  alio  id  commitatur,  qui  eos 
et  innocentis  vitae  exemplis  informet  et  ad  opus  bonum  peragendum  ex- 
citet.”  Mon.  Ger.  Hist,  fiegum  III,  Concilia  II,  413. 

65  Specht,  Geschichte  des  Unterrichtswesens  in  Deutschland,  35  ff. 
Stuttgart,  1885. 


THE  SCHOOL  FOR  EXTERNS 


45 


pursue  higher  studies  and  yet  did  not  care  to  become 
monks  or  to  enter  the  canonical  life  of  the  cathedrals, 
facilities  should  be  provided  in  every  episcopal  see  for 
their  education;  and,  where  the  dioceses  were  too  exten¬ 
sive  or  the  pupils  too  numerous  to  congregate  in  one 
place,  that  schools  should  be  established  in  two  or  more 
places;  furthermore,  that  parents,  those  responsible  for 
the  students,  and  the  lords,  should  bear  the  expenses  of 
their  support  so  that  none  ambitious  for  learning,  or 
desirous  of  entering  the  service  of  the  Church,  would 
be  prevented  by  poverty.66 

The  emperor  supported  this  legislation  and  in  his  later 
admonitions  to  the  bishops  reminded  them  of  the  pledges 
made  at  Attigny  in  822.67  In  consequence  we  record 
from  his  time  the  formal  establishment  of  the  schools 

i 

for  externs  at  the  episcopal  sees  and  the  larger 
monasteries — schools  which  were  open  to  all  but  especi- 


66  “Dei  omnipotentis  inspiratione  vestro  piissimo  studio  ammoniti  ves- 
troque  saluberrimo  exemplo  provocati  confitemur  nos  in  pluribus  locis, 
quam  modo  aut  ratio  aut  possibilitas  enumerare  permittat,  tam  in  vita 
quamque  doctrina  et  ministerio  negligentes  extitisse.  Quamobrem,  sicut 
hactenus  in  his  nos  negligentes  fuisse  non  denegamus,  ita  abhinc  Domino 
opitulante,  data  nobis  a  vestra  benignitate  congruenti  facultate  vel  libertate, 
diligentiorem  curam  in  his  omnibus  pro  captu  intelligentiae  nostrae  nos 
velle  adhibere  profitemur. 

II.  “Quid  vero  liquido  constat,  quod  salus  populi  maxime  in  doctrina  et 
praedictatione  consistat,  et  praedicatio  eadem  impleri  ita  ut  oportet  non 
potest  nisi  a  doctis,  necesse  est,  ut  ordo  talis  in  singulis  sedibus  inveniatur, 
oer  quern  et  presens  emendatio  et  futura  utilitas  sanctae  ecclesiae  pre- 
paretur.  Qualiter  autem  hoc  fieri  debeat  et  possit,  in  sequenti  capitulo 
demonstrabitur. 

III.  “Scolas  itaque,  de  quibus  hactenus  minus  studiosi  fuimus  quam 
debueramus,  omnino  studiosissimi  emendare  cupimus,  qualiter  omnis  homo 
sive  majoris  sive  minoris  aetatis,  qui  ad  hoc  nutritur,  ut  in  aliquo  gradu 
in  ecclesia  promoveatur,  locum  denominatum  et  magistrum  congruum 
habeat.  Parentes  tamen  vel  domini  singulorum  de  victu  vel  substantia 
corporali,  unde  subsistant,  providere  studeant,  qualiter  ita  solatium 
habeant,  ut  propter  rerum  inopiam  a  doctrinae  studio  non  recedant.  Si 
vero  necessitas  fuerit  propter  amplitudinem  parroechiae,  eo  quod  in  uno 
loco  colligi  non  possunt,  propter  administrationem,  quam  eis  procuratores 
eorum  nrovidere  debent,  fiat  locis  duobus  aut  tribus  vel  prout  necessitas  et 
ratio  dictaverit.”  Mon.  Ger.  Hist.  Legum  II,  Concilia  I,  357. 

67  “Scolae  sane  ad  filios  et  ministros  ecclesiae  instruendos  vel  edocendos 
sicut  nobis  praeterito  tempore  ad  Attiniacum  promisistis  et  vobis  iniunxi- 
mus  in  congruis  locis,  ubi  necdum  perfectum  est,  ad  multorum  utilitatem  et 
profectum  a  vobis  ordinari  non  negligantur.”  Admonitio  ad  omnes  regni 
ordines.  Mon.  Ger.  Hist.  Degum  II,  Capitularia  I,  304.  Anno  825. 


46  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

ally  to  those  aspiring  to  the  priesthood.  A  good  example 
of  the  school  for  externs  in  connection  with  an  episcopal 
see  is  that  of  Rheims.  According  to  Flodoardns,  the 
historian  of  the  see,  when  Archbishop  Fnlk,  the  successor 
of  Hincmar,  was  elevated  to  office  he  took  special  care 
to  restore  the  two  schools,  the  inner  and  the  outer,  to 
their  former  prestige.68  The  plan  of  the  monastery 
of  St.  Gall,  designed  under  Abbot  Gospert  (816-37),  shows 
the  outer  and  inner  schools  as  they  existed  there  and 
most  probably  in  the  other  larger  monasteries.  The 
“Schola  Interior”  is  inside  the  cloister,  east  of  the 
church,  and  the  4  ‘  Schola  Exterior  ’ ’  is  outside  the  cloister, 
between  the  abbot’s  house  and  the  guest  hall.69  In 
937  after  a  fire  in  the  monastery  the  monks  threatened 
to  close  the  school  for  externs  because  they  believed  that 
the  students  of  that  school  were  responsible  for  it. 

In  the  ninth  century  the  schools  for  interns  and  ex¬ 
terns  were  numerous  and  well  attended.  Some  cities 
like  Orleans  had  both  the  episcopal  and  the  monastic 
schools  and  parents  and  guardians  could  send  the  young 
to  either  institution.  By  entering  them  the  students 
took  no  irrevocable  pledges  to  become  monks  or  canons. 
Many  of  them  became  tonsured  clerics  at  an  early  age, 
but  they  were  free  to  elect  later,  when  they  had  attained 
their  majority,  between  the  clerical  and  the  married  state. 
The  leaving  of  the  inner  to  enter  the  outer  school,  or  to 
return  to  the  world,  was  therefore  possible  to  all.  That 
the  laity  of  all  classes  attended  these  schools,  especially 
those  attached  to  the  larger  monasteries,  is  attested  by 


68  “Prefatis  denique  presul  honorabilis  Folco,  sollicitus  circa  Dei  cultum 
et  ordinem  ecclesiasticum,  amore  quoque  sapientiae  fervens,  duas  scolas 
Remis,  canonicorum  scilicet  loci  atque  ruralium  clericorum,  jam  pene 
delapsas,  restituit,  et  evocato  Remigio  Autisiodorense  magistro,  liberalium 
artium  studiis  adolescentes  clericos  exerceri  fecit;  ipseque  cum  eis  lectioni 
ac  meditationi  sapientiae  operam  dedit.  Sed  et  Hucbaldum  Sancti 
Amandi  monachum,  virum  quoque  disciplinis  sophicis  nobiliter  eruditum, 
accersivit  et  ecclesiam  Remensem  praeclaris  illustravit  doctrinist  Mon. 
Ger.  Hist.  Scriptores  XIII.  Hist.  Remen.  IV,  9. 

f9  Keller,  Bauriss  des  Klosters  St.  Gallen,  23  ff.  Zurich,  1844.  Specht, 
Ibid.  37. 


THE  SCHOOL  FOR  EXTERNS 


47 


the  foundations  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  and  the  regu¬ 
lations  affecting  the  wealthier  children. 

In  a  former  chapter  we  have  noted  the  attitude  of 
the  diocesan  and  the  monastic  authorities  towards  gra¬ 
tuitous  education.  The  munificence  of  the  bishops  and 
the  abbots  continued  throughout  this  later  period,  and 
was  only  checked  when  ecclesiastical  institutions  were 
destroyed  by  the  invasions  of  foreigners  and  the  spolia¬ 
tions  of  unscrupulous  princes.  The  wealthier  members 
of  the  laity  were  then  called  upon  to  share  the  heavy 
burden  of  maintaining  the  schools.  While  instruction 
continued  k  be  gratuitous,  board  and  clothing  could  not 
be  given  freely.  All  who  could  pay  for  the  latter  were 
expected  to  do  so,  and  both  parents  and  scholars  were 
generous  to  the  monasteries  and  the  teachers.  Many 
rich  foundations  were  established  by  the  nobility  during 
the  school  days  of  their  sons  and  daughters.  Lanfranc, 
it  is  said,  received  in  presents  from  his  students  enough 
to  relieve  an  impoverished  community  and  to  erect  the 
first  buildings  of  the  monastery  of  Bee. 

In  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  despite  the  heavy 
losses  caused  by  war  and  spoliation,  schools  multiplied 
in  the  more  populous  centers  of  the  Empire,  and  the 
number  of  students  increased.  Leon  Maitre  in  his  re¬ 
view  of  educational  conditions  in  the  ninth  century  re¬ 
fers  to  the  more  famous  schools  at  the  episcopal  sees 
of  Orleans,  Rheims,  Soissons,  Amiens,  Metz,  Verdun, 
and  Liege,  also  to  notable  schools  at  the  monasteries  of 
Tours,  St.  Alban  near  Mainz,  Seligenstadt,  Hirschau,  St. 
Gall,  Reichenau,  to  which  the  sons  of  princes  resorted 
to  learn  how  to  govern  their  domains,  St.  Germain 
d’Auxerre,  where  a  son  of  Charles  the  Bald  studied  under 
the  renowned  Heiric,  St.  Germain-des-Pres  and  St.  Denis 
at  Paris,  St.  Benedict  on  the  Loire,  and  St.  Liffard  in 
the  diocese  of  Orleans,  Corbie,  and  New  Corbie  in  Saxony, 
St.  Riquier,  St.  Martin  at  Metz,  St.  Bertin  in  the  diocese 


48  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


of  Cambrai,  and  St.  Benedict  of  Aniane  in  the  diocese  of 
Montpellier.70 

We  know  what  fame  the  monastery  of  Fulda  in  Ger¬ 
many  had  attained  under  the  direction  of  Rhabanns 
Maurus.  Alcuin’s  pupil  in  the  monastery  of  Tours  had 
the  distinction  of  being  the  most  noted  teacher  of  his 
time,  and  it  has  been  well  said  that  “to  signal  ability  as 
a  teacher  and  merit  as  a  writer  Rhabanus  added  no  small 
achievements  as  a  founder.  At  the  time  of  his  election 
as  abbot,  no  less  than  sixteen  monasteries  and  nunneries, 
either  founded  by  former  abbots  or  affiliated  at  their 
own  desire,  already  looked  up  to  Fulda  as  their  parent 
house.  To  these  Rhabanus  added  six  more, — those  at 
Corvey,  Solenhofen,  Celle,  Hersfeld,  Petersberg,  and 
Hirschau ;  we  may  accordingly  reckon  twenty- two  societies 
wherein  his  authority  would  be  regarded  as  law,  and 
his  teaching  be  faithfully  preserved.  ’  ’ 71  The  monas¬ 
tery  too  of  St.  Benedict  on  the  Loire  deserves  special 
attention  for  the  fame  it  achieved  and  the  great  numbers 
of  its  pupils.  Like  Fulda  it  placed  only  men  of  deep 
piety  and  learning  at  the  head  of  the  schools,  and  it  is 
recorded  that  in  the  last  half  of  the  tenth  century  5,000 
students  lived  there. 

In  England  an  educational  revival  was  attempted  in 
the  ninth  century  under  Alfred  the  Great.  (849-900)  A 
new  spirit  entered  into  the  monastic  schools  as  a  result 
of  the  reforms  he  encouraged.  He  brought  the  scholars 
Grimbald  of  St.  Bertin  of  Rheims,  and  John  of  Corbie, 
from  the  Continent  to  raise  the  standards  of  the  schools. 
In  the  next  century  St.  Dunstan  (924-88)  appeared  as 
a  veritable  champion  of  religion  and  education.  As 
abbot  of  Glastonbury,  bishop  of  Worcester,  London, 
and  Canterbury,  he  looked  especially  to  the  condition 
of  the  schools.  Historians  speak  of  his  habit  of  visiting 
and  teaching  the  boys  in  the  cathedral  school  at  Canter- 


•"Maitre.  Les  Ecoles  Episcopates  et  Monastiques,  48. 
71  Mullinger,  Schools  of  Charles  the  Great,  151.  ’ 


Paris,  1866. 


THE  SCHOOL  FOR  EXTERNS 


49 


bury  and  of  the  favor  in  which  he  was  held  by  them.  He 
was  so  much  beloved  that  after  his  death  he  became  the 
patron  saint  of  English  school-boys,  and  his  protection 
was  invoked  against  harsh  and  cruel  teachers.  A  detail 
of  his  life  which  is  of  rare  importance  in  the  history  of 
education  was  his  devotion  to  the  manual  arts.  Instructed 
in  them  by  Irish  monks  when  a  youth  at  Glaston¬ 
bury,  he  was  throughout  life  an  artistic  and  enthusiastic 
craftsman  in  metal,  wood,  and  ivory.  The  ecclesiastical 
canons  of  his  time  place  injunctions  on  the  parish  clergy 
to  teach  the  boys  of  their  parishes  some  of  the  manual 
arts,  and  it  does  not  seem  improbable  that  they  were  the 
result  of  his  interest  in  the  teaching  and  the  practice  of 
the  crafts.  The  following  were  passed  during  King 
Edgar ’s  reign :  “  And  that  every  priest  do  moreover  teach 
manual  arts  with  diligence.  ”  “And  that  the  priest  dili¬ 
gently  instruct  Youth,  and  dispose  them  to  trades  that 
they  may  have  a  support  to  the  Church.  ’  ’ 72 

The  Christians  in  Spain  being  at  this  time  under  the 
yoke  of  the  Arab,  their  schools  suffered  by  the  vicissitudes 
of  war  and  persecution.  In  Italy,  however,  despite  the 
Saracen  invasion,  we  can  note  the  existence  of  the 
monastic,  episcopal,  parish  and  private  schools.  Lothaire 
I  in  his  decree  of  823  deplored  the  condition  of  learning 
in  Northern  Italy  and  endeavored  to  reorganize  educa¬ 
tion  by  instituting  schools  at  nine  important  places, — 

72  Johnson,  John.  Collection  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Canons,  etc.,  of  the 
Church  of  England,  I,  Canons  of  960,  Nos.  11  and  51.  London,  1720. 
Canones  editi  sub  Edgar o  Rege,  et  ad  leges  suas  pertinentes.  ( Ut  in 
veterrimo  manuscripto  codice  Saxonico  Collegii  Corporis  Christi  Can- 
tabrigiae  reperiuntur  .  .  .)  Canon  11.  “Docemus  etiam,  ut  sacerdos 

quilibet  ad  augendam  scientiam  opificum  discat  diligenter.”  (Hardouin, 
Acta  Con.  VI,  660.)  “Docemus  etiam,  ut  quilibet  sacerdos  augendae 
scientiae  causa  diligenter  discat  opificium.”  (Mansi,  Coll.  Con.  XVIIA, 
513.)  Canon  51.  “Docemus  etiam,  ut  sacerdotes  sedulo  erudiunt  ju- 
ventutem,  et  ad  artificia  ediscenda  eos  pertrahant,  futuros  utpote  in  rem 
ecclesiae.”  (Hardouin  VI,  663.)  “Docemus  etiam,  ut  sacerdotes  ju- 
ventutem  sedulo  doceant,  et  ad  opificia  trahant,  ut  ecclesiae  auxilium 
(inde)  habeant.”  Mansi  XVIIA,  517.)  Anderson,  L.  F.  “Industrial 
Education  during  the  Middle  Ages,”  in  Education,  February,  1912. 


50  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

N  "  '  .  • 

Pavia,  Ivrea,  Turin,  Cremona,  Florence,  Fermo,  Verona, 
Vicenza,  and  Friuli.  Tlie  head  of  the  school  of  Pavia 
was  Dungall,  an  Irishman.73 


73  Mon.  Ger.  Hist  Legum  II,  Capitularia  I,  327.  Sandys,  History  of 
Classical  Scholarship  I,  462.  Cambridge,  1906. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  TENTH  AND  ELEVENTH  CENTURIES 

After  reviewing*  the  educational  revival  under  Charle¬ 
magne  and  his  successors,  and  witnessing  the  organiza¬ 
tion  of  scholastic  forces  that  resulted,  it  is  refreshing  to 
note  with  the  historian  Laurie  that,  “after  all,  the  early- 
half  of  the  ninth  century  perhaps  did  more  for  educa¬ 
tion,  as  that  word  was  then  understood,  in  proportion  to 
the  means  and  opportunities  available,  than  any  period 
since.”74  It  can  clearly  be  seen  that  during  the  century 
new  thought  was  taken  for  the  better  education  of  the 
clergy  and  the  laity,  and  the  achievements  of  the  time 
were  an  inspiration  and  incentive  to  those  who,  in  the 
centuries  which  followed,  led  in  the  councils  of  Church 
and  State.  Despite  the  vicissitudes  through  which  educa¬ 
tional  institutions  then  passed,  the  dark  days  of  invasion, 
war,  and  spoliation  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries, 
the  lamp  of  science  was  kept  burning  by  churchmen  and 
leading  laymen  whose  services  to  learning  were  not  less 
than  heroic.  Each  century  saw  its  zealots  striving  for 
the  preservation  of  ecclesiastical  life  in  the  monasteries 
and  the  canonicates,  eager  for  the  restoration  and  per¬ 
fection  of  the  schools,  and  endeavoring  to  provide  for  the 
moral  and  spiritual  enlightenment  of  the  people.  Through 
the  unselfish  efforts  of  these  leaders  of  society,  whether 
the  Pope,  the  emperor,  a  bishop  or  a  prince,  the  modern 
world  can  see  the  educational  ideal  of  the  age,  and  obtain 
a  fair  view  of  the  actual  conditions  which  existed. 

Of  King  Alfred’s  revival  in  England,  to  which  refer¬ 
ence  has  already  been  made,  and  of  its  influence  in  this 


74  Laurie,  S.  S.  Rise  and  Early  Constitution  of  Universities,  77,  New 
York,  1898. 


52  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

period,  much  more  indeed  can  be  said.  He  strove  to  im¬ 
prove  the  monasteries  of  his  kingdom  and  to  educate  the 
people  generally.  In  the  preface  to  his  translation  of 
Pope  Gregory’s  Pastoral  Care,  one  of  the  earliest  works 
of  English  literature,  he  says : 

“  Therefore,  I  think  it  is  better,  if  you  think  so  too, 
that  we  also  should  translate  some  of  the  books,  which 
are  most  useful  for  all  men  to  know,  into  the  language 
which  we  can  all  understand,  and  should  do  as  we  very 
easily  can  with  God’s  help  if  we  have  peace,  that  all  the 
youth  of  our  English  freemen,  who  are  rich  enough  to  de¬ 
vote  themselves  to  it,  should  be  set  to  learning,  as  long  as 
they  are  not  fit  for  any  other  occupation,  until  they  are 
well  able  to  read  English  writing;  and  further  let  those 
afterwards  learn  Latin  who  will  continue  in  learning, 
and  go  to  a  higher  rank.  When  I  remembered  how  the 
knowledge  of  Latin  had  formerly  decayed  among  the 
English,  and  yet  many  could  read  English  writing,  I  be¬ 
gan,  among  other  various  and  manifold  troubles  of  this 
kingdom,  to  translate  into  English  the  book  which  is 
called  in  Latin  Pastoralis,  and  in  English  The  Herd’s 
Book,  sometimes  word  for  word  and  sometimes  meaning 
for  meaning,  as  I  had  learned  it  from  Plegmund  my  arch¬ 
bishop,  and  Asser  my  bishop,  and  Grimbold  my  mass- 
priest,  and  John  my  mass-priest.  And  when  I  had 
learned  it  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  and  as  I  could  most 
clearly  interpret  it,  I  translated  it  into  English;  and  I 
will  send  a  copy  to  every  bishopric  in  my  kingdom ;  with 
a  clasp  on  each  worth  fifty  mancuses.  And  I  forbid  in 
God’s  name  anyone  to  take  the  clasp  from  the  book  or  the 
book  from  the  minster.”  75 

Alfred’s  children  were  educated  in  the  court  or  palace 
school  with  the  exception  of  Ethelwald,  his  youngest  son, 
who,  according  to  the  historian  Asser,  “by  divine  counsel 
and  the  admirable  foresight  of  the  King,  was  entrusted 
to  the  school  of  literary  training  (Grammar  School), 
with  the  children  of  almost  all  of  the  nobility  of  the  coun- 


75  Leach,  A.  F.  Educational  Charters  and  Documents.  Cambridge,  1911. 


THE  TENTH  AND  ELEVENTH  CENTURIES 


53 


try,  and  many  also  who  were  not  noble,  under  the  diligent 
care  of  masters.  In  that  school,  books  in  both  languages, 
Latin  and  Saxon,  were  diligently  read.  They  also  had 
leisure  for  writing,  so  that  before  they  had  strength  for 
manly  arts,  namely  hunting  and  such  pursuits  as  befit 
gentlemen,  they  were  seen  to  be  studious  and  clever  in  the 
liberal  arts.. . .  ”  76 

One  of  Alfred’s  foundations  was  “the  school  which  he 
had  with  great  zeal  collected  from  many  noble  boys,  and 
also  boys  who  were  not  noble,  of  his  own  nation.”  77 

The  effect  of  Alfred’s  interest  in  learning  on  the  cour¬ 
tiers  and  nobles  of  his  realm  was  excellent.  We  are  told 
that  they,  following  the  royal  example,  turned  to  books 
and  cultivated  the  art  of  reading.  “So  that  in  a  marvel¬ 
lous  manner  nearly  all  of  the  earls,  the  bailiffs  and  thanes 
who  had  been  illiterate  from  infancy,  studied  the  art  of 
grammar,  choosing  rather  to  acquire  an  unaccustomed 
learning  than  to  resign  their  office  and  power.  But  if  any 
of  them  could  not  get  on  in  his  study  of  literature  through 
age  or  the  stupidity  of  an  unused  intellect,  he  ordered 
his  son  if  he  had  one,  or  other  near  relation,  or  if  there 
was  no  one  else  his  freeman  or  slave,  whom  he  had  long 
before  advanced  to  reading,  to  read  aloud  Saxon  books 
to  him,  day  aud  night,  whenever  he  had  leave.  And  they 
would  lament  in  the  recesses  of  their  minds,  that  in  their 
youth  they  had  not  devoted  themselves  to  such  studies. 
They  counted  the  youth  of  this  time  happy  in  being  able 
to  learn  the  liberal  arts,  and  themselves  unhappy  in  that 
they  bad  not  learnt  these  things  in  their  youth,  and  that  in 

76  “Ethel wald,  omnibus  junior,  ludis  literariae  disciplinae,  divino  consilio 
et  admirabili  regis  providentia,  cum  omnibus  pene  totius  regionis  nobilibus 
infantibus  et  etiam  multis  ignobilibus,  sub  diligenti  magistrorum  cura  tra- 
ditus  est.  In  qua  scola  utriusque  linguae  libri,  Latinae  scilicet  et  Saxonicae, 
assidue  legebantur,  scriptioni  quoque  vacabant,  ita,  ut  antequam  aptas 
humanis  artibus  vires  haberent,  venatoriae  scilicet  et  ceteris  artibus,  quae 
nobilibus  conveniunt,  in  liberalibus  artibus  studiosi  et  ingeniosi  videren- 
tur.  .  .  .”  Asserius,  De  Rebus  Gestis  Aelfredi,  75.  Edited  by  W.  H. 
Stevenson,  Oxford,  1904. 

77  .  .  .  scholae,  quam  ex  multis  suae  propiae  gentis  nobilibus  et  etiam 
pueris  ignobilibus  studiossissme  congregavit.”  Ibid.  102. 


54  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

their  old  age,  though  they  vehemently  wanted  to,  they 
could  not  learn.  ’  ’ 78 

These  accounts  of  the  revival  we  have  received  from 
the  Life  of  King  Alfred  by  Asser,  who  is  supposed  to  be 
his  contemporary.  The  history  is,  however,  believed  by 
some  to  be  largely,  if  not  entirely,  the  work  of  a  much 
later  writer.  Leach,  for  instance,  believes  that  ‘ i While 
therefore  we  cannot  consider  Asser ’s  Life  as  evidence  of 
the  state  of  education  in  the  ninth  century  it  is  highly  in¬ 
teresting  as  evidence  of  what  an  eleventh  century  writer 
thought  possible.  It  shows  at  all  events  that  English 
mothers  of  the  eleventh  century  taught  their  children,  even 
royal  children,  to  read  English  poetry,  and  that  it  was 
customary  for  English  kings  and  nobles  to  send  their 
sons  to  the  Grammar  school  with  ordinary  freemen  to 
learn  Latin  and  to  fit  them  for  judicial  business,  or  for 
clerical  work  in  the  modern  as  well  as  the  medieval 
sense.”  79  Stevenson,  however,  in  his  edition  of  Asser ’s 
Life,  says  that  the  result  of  his  careful  study  of  the  work 
has  been  to  convince  him  that  “  although  there  may  be 
no  very  definite  proof  that  the  work  was  written  by 
Bishop  Asser  in  the  lifetime  of  King  Alfred,  there  is  no 
anachronism  or  other  proof  that  it  is  a  spurious  compila¬ 
tion  of  a  later  date.  The  serious  charges  brought  against 
its  authenticity  break  down  altogether  under  examina¬ 
tion,  while  there  remain  several  features  that  point  with 


78  “.  .  .  Ita  ut  mirum  in  modum  illiterati  ab  infantia  comites  pene  omnes, 
praepositi  ac  ministri  literatoriae  arti  studerent,  malentes  insuetam  disci- 
plinam  quam  laboriose  discere,  quam  potestatum  ministeria  dimittere.  Sed 
si  aliquis  literalibus  studiis  aut  pro  senio  vel  etiam  pro  nimia  inusitati 
ingenii  tarditate  proficere  non  valeret,  suum,  si  haberet,  filium,  aut  etiam 
aliquem  propinquum  suum,  vel  etiam,  si  aliter  non  habeat,  suum  proprium 
hominem,  liberum  vel  servum,  quern  ad  lectionem  longe  ante  promoverat, 
libros  ante  se  die  nocteque,  quandocunque  unquam  ullam  haberet  licen- 
tiam,  Saxanicos  imperabat  recitare.  Et  suspirantes  nimium  intima  mente 
dolebant  eo  quod  in  juventute  sua  talibus  studiis  non  studuerant,  felices 
arbitrantes  hujustemporis  juvenes,  qui  liberalibus  artibus  feliciter  erudire 
poterant,  se  vero  infelices  existimantes,  qui  nec  hoc  in  juventute  didicerant, 
nec  etiam  in  senectute,  quamvis  inhianter  desiderarent,  poterant  discere.” 
Ibid.  106. 

79  Educational  Charters,  xvi. 


THE  TENTH  AND  ELEVENTH  CENTURIES 


55 


varying  strength  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is,  despite  its 
difficulties  and  corruptions,  really  a  work  of  the  time  it 
purports  to  be.  This  result  is  confirmed  by  the  impor¬ 
tant  corroboration  of  some  of  its  statements  by  contem¬ 
porary  Frankish  chroniclers.  Thus  the  profession  of  be¬ 
lief  in  its  authenticity  by  such  eminent  historians  as 
Kemble,  Pauli,  Stubbs,  and  Freeman  agree  with  my  own 
conclusion.  ’  ’ 80 

Charles  Plummer  in  his  Life  and  Times  of  Alfred  the 
Great,  believes  that  the  “work  which  bears  Asserts  name 
cannot  be  later  than  974,  and  the  attempt  to  treat  it  as  a 
forgery  of  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  century  must  be  re¬ 
garded  as  having  broken  down.  I  may  add  that  I  started 
with  a  strong  prejudice  against  the  authenticity  of  Asser, 
so  that  my  conclusions  have  at  any  rate  been  impartially 
arrived  at.  ’  * 81 

Two  other  works  assigned  to  the  end  of  the  tenth  and 
the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  namely,  the  “  Col¬ 
loquy  ”  and  the  “Grammar”  of  the  Abbot  Aelfric,  throw 
interesting  light  on  the  educational  condition  of  the  time 
in  which  they  were  written.  In  the  “Colloquy,”  a  school¬ 
boy  is  asked  by  his  master,  “What  work  have  you!”  He 
answers :  “I  am  a  professed  monk  and  I  sing  seven  times 
a  day  with  the  brethren  and  I  am  busy  with  reading  and 
singing;  and  meanwhile  I  want  to  learn  to  speak  Latin.” 
In  answer  to  the  second  question,  “What  do  these  com¬ 
panions  of  yours  know!”  he  says:  “Some  are  plough¬ 
men,  others  shepherds,  some  are  cowherds,  some  too  are 
hunters,  some  are  hawkers,  some  merchants,  some  shoe¬ 
makers,  some  salters,  some  bakers  of  the  place.”  If  the 
work  is  representative  of  a  school  of  that  time  it  4  ‘  shows 
an  amazing  diffusion  of  education  among  all  classes, 
boys  in  all  the  different  occupations  .  .  .  learning 
Latin  of  a  secular  teacher  side  by  side  with  a  young 


80  Asserius,  De  Rebus  Gestis  Aelfredi,  vii. 

81  Plummer,  Life  and  Times  of  Alfred  the  Great.  Oxford.  1902. 


56  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

monk.”  From  certain  expressions  in  the  “Grammar,” 
believed  to  be  the  first  English-Latin  grammar,  it  has 
been  assumed  that  not  only  boys  were  learning  Latin  but 
girls  also,  for  instance,  the  example  given  to  illustrate 
that  the  gerundive  in  do  does  not  vary  in  gender  is, 
“Ipsa  monialis  vigilat  docendo  puellas;  (“The  nun  is 
awake  teaching  little  girls”)  and  “Legendo  docetur  vir 
et  legendo  docetur  mulier,”  (“A  man  is  taught  by  read¬ 
ing  and  a  woman  is  taught  by  reading.”)82 

Furthermore  towards  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  the 
ecclesiastical  law  of  England  placed  injunctions  on  the 
priests  in  the  villages  to  learn  and  to  teach  the  manual 
arts,  such  as  we  have  already  noted  in  connection  with  St. 
Dunstan,  and  explicitly  commanded  them  to  “keep  schools 
in  the  villages  and  to  teach  small  boys  freely.  ’ ’  The  law 
stated  also:  “Priests  ought  always  to  have  schools  of 
schoolmasters  in  their  houses,  and  if  any  of  the  faithful 
wish  to  give  his  little  ones  to  learning  they  ought  will¬ 
ingly  to  receive  them  and  teach  them  gratuitously.  You 
ought  to  think  that  it  has  been  written:  ‘they  that  are 
learned  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament: 
and  they  that  instruct  many  to  justice,  as  stars  for  all 
eternity.  ’  But  they  ought  not  to  expect  anything  from 
their  relations  except  what  they  wish  to  do  of  their  own 
accord.”  The  wording  of  this  decree  is  almost  identical 
with  that  of  the  famous  capitulary  of  Theodulf  of  Or¬ 
leans  of  the  latter  part  of  the  eighth  century.83 

During  this  same  period  noblemen  of  other  countries, 
notably  of  France  and  of  Italy,  were  conspicuous  for 
their  interest  in  learning  and  in  the  welfare  of  the  schools. 


82  Leach,  Ibid.  39ff. 

83  “Ut  presbyteri  per  villas  scholas  habeant  et  gratis  parvulos  doceant. 
Presbyteri  semper  debent  in  domibus  suis  ludimagistrorum  scholas  habere, 
et  si  quis  devotus  parvulos  suos  eis  ad  instructionem  concredere  velit  illos 
quam  libentissime  suscipere  et  benigne  docere  debent.  Cogitare  debetis 
quod  scriptum  sit  quod  qui  docti  sunt  fulgebunt  sicut  splendor  coeli’  et 
quod  qui  multos  ad  justitiam  erudiverunt  et  docuerunt  splendebunt  sicut 
stellae  in  aeternum.  Attamen  non  debent  pro  instructione  eorum  aliquid  a 
consangumeus  expectare  nisi  quod  propria  voluntate  facere  voluerint.” 
Wilkins,  Concilia  Magnae  Britaniae  et  Hiberniae,  I,  270.  Londini,  1737. 


THE  TENTH  AND  ELEVENTH  CENTURIES 


57 


Clerval  in  classifying  the  distinguished  pupils  of  Char¬ 
tres  during  the  time  of  the  great  teacher  and  bishop, 
St.  Fulbert  (fl029),  speaks  of  two  classes  of  laymen  who 
were  educated  in  the  episcopal  school :  the  first  embraced 
those  who  eventually  became  members  of  religious 
orders,  and  the  second  those  who  remained  in  the  world. 
Among  the  former  were  Foucher,  a  married  man  who 
was  ‘primicerius’  of  the  school;  Ive,  who  was  also 
married,  and  likewise  head  of  the  school;  and  Goisbert, 
a  celebrated  and  prosperous  physician  who  after  selling 
his  estate  and  giving  all  to  the  monastery,  practiced 
medicine  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  and  the  monastery. 
The  donations  received  by  him  for  his  services  were 
many  and  valuable.  Among  those  who  remained  in  the 
world  were  the  famous  savants  and  physicians  Geoffroi, 
Guizo,  and  Jean,  the  latter  a  notable  philosopher, 
and  the  musician  Guillemus.  The  historian  of  the 
schools  of  Chartres  also  refers  to  other  learned  men 
among  the  laity  who  were  founders  of  monasteries  and 
patrons  of  letters  but  the  place  of  whose  training  is  not 
known.84 

Maitre  mentions  other  princes  who  were  founders  of 
monasteries  and  colleges.  Guerech,  count  of  Nantes,  was 
an  alumnus  and  benefactor  of  the  monastery  of  St. 
Benedict  on  the  Loire ;  Theobald,  count  of  Anjou,  founded 
the  monastery  of  St.  Florent  de  Saumur,  and  Borel, 
count  of  Barcelona,  was  a  patron  of  learning  who  in¬ 
duced  the  great  Gerbert  to  go  to  Spain  and  teach  there.85 
In  England  too,  Ilbert  of  Lacy  founded  the  collegiate 
church  of  St.  Clement  in  Pontefract  Castle  with  which 
was  connected  the  school  of  Kirby-Pontefract.  Robert 
of  Eu  founded  the  collegiate  church  of  St.  Mary  in  the 
castle  of  Hastings.  The  latter  “made  one  canon  of  the 
church  ex  officio  master  of  the  Grammar  school  and 
another  of  the  song  school.”86 

84  Clerval.  Les  Ecoles  de  Chartres  au  moyen  age,  69.  Paris  1895. 

85Maitre,  Les  Ecoles  Episcopales  et  Monastiques,  79. 

86  Leach,  Ibid.  xxi. 


58  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

In  Italy  schools  were  so  flourishing  and  well  attended 
as  to  excite  the  admiration  of  foreigners.  The  devotion 
of  the  Italians  to  learning  was  upheld  to  the  Germans 
for  their  emulation  in  one  particular  and  notable  in¬ 
stance.  A  poem  by  Wipo,  “Carmen  Legis  pro  laude 
Regis/ ’  addressed  to  King  Henry  III,  portrays  a  con¬ 
dition  which  is  entirely  complimentary  to  the  Italy  of 
the  eleventh  century.  The  credibility  of  the  author  and 
his  weight  as  a  witness  to  the  condition  of  culture  at  that 
time  have  been  ably  discussed  by  German  and  Italian 
scholars.  We  accept  here  the  views  of  Novati,87  who 
takes  the  simpler  interpretation  of  the  poem  and  ad¬ 
mirably  demonstrates  that  it  referred  to  a  learned  body 
in  Italy  which  not  only  embraced  the  princes  of  the  blood 
but  the  wealthier  classes — the  divites,  and  not  alone  the 
principes. 

In  the  poem88  the  king  is  urged  to  command  that  the 
Germans  provide  instruction  for  their  children  in  letters, 
and  in  the  law,  that  they  may  discharge  the  duties  of 
their  state,  abide  by  those  customs  and  practices  on 
which  a  great  State  must  rest,  and  by  which  ancient  Rome 
lived  so  honorably.  These  things  all  of  the  Italians  cul- 


87  Novati,  F.  Iy’Influsso  del  Pensiero  Latino  sopra  la  Civilta  Italiano  del 
Medio  Aevo,  68.  Milano,  1899. 

88  “Cum  Deus  omnipotens  tibi  totum  fregerit  orbem, 

Et  juga  praecepti  non  audet  temnere  quisquam, 
Pacatusque  silet  firmato  foedere  mundus, 

Cumque  per  imperium  tua  jussa  volatile  verbum, 

Edocet,  Augusti  de  claro  nomine  scriptum : 

Tunc  fac  edictum  per  terram  Teutonicorum, 

Quilibet  ut  dives  sibi  natos  instruat  omnes 
Litterulis,  legemque  suam  persuadeat  illis; 

Ut,  cum  principibus  placitandi  venerit  usus, 

Quisque  suis  libris  exemplum  proferat  illis. 

Moribus  his  dudum  vivebat  Roma  decenter, 

His  studiis  tantos  potuit  vincere  tyrannos; 

Hoc  servant  Itali  post  prima  crepundia  cuncti, 

Et  sudare  scobs  mandatur  tota  juventus: 

Solis  Teutonicis  vacuum  vel  turpe  videtur, 

Ut  doceant  aliquem,  nisi  clericus  accipiatur. 

Sed,  rex  docte,  jube  cunctos  per  regna  doceri- 
Ut  tecum  regnet  sapientia  partibus  istis.” 

Migne,  Pat.  Lat.  CXLII,  1256. 


THE  TENTH  AND  ELEVENTH  CENTURIES 


59 


tivate  from  tlieir  childhood:  the  entire  youth  is  com¬ 
manded  to  attend  the  schools — sudare  in  scholis.  Only  to 
the  Germans,  the  poet  says,  does  the  study  of  letters  ap¬ 
pear  a  useless  and  unbecoming  occupation,  unless  for 
those  intended  for  the  ecclesiastical  state.  The  king 
should,  therefore,  command  that  all  be  instructed  so  that 
wisdom  may  reign  with  him  in  his  kingdom. 

This  period  deserves  especial  attention  also  for  the 
opportunities  it  offered  for  training  in  the  special  pro¬ 
fessions  of  law  and  medicine  into  which  the  laity  were 
to  enter  in  ever  increasing  numbers.  Law  was  then 
taught  in  connection  with  the  liberal  arts  in  the  monas¬ 
teries,  the  episcopal  schools,  and  in  some  private  insti¬ 
tutions.  The  downfall  of  legal  education  in  the  early 
Middle  Ages  means  only  of  the  law  schools  properly  so 
called.  As  Savigny  says  in  his  History  of  Roman  law, 
“  Roman  Law,  as  a  branch  of  ancient  literature  was  in¬ 
cluded  in  the  course  of  study,  and  especially  taught  in 
connection  with  dialectics  throughout  the  Middle  Ages.”80 
It  is  mentioned  in  Wipo’s  poem;  it  was  included  in  the 
curriculum  of  the  School  of  York,  in  the  time  of  Alcuin,90 
and  in  other  cathedral  schools.  At  times  it  received  a 
curious  place  in  the  curriculum.  At  Toul  in  the  middle 
of  the  eleventh  century  it  was  studied  after  the  trivium 
and  before  the  quadrivium  of  the  seven  liberal  arts.91 
While  we  know  that  many  clerics  studied  and  practiced 
law  we  know  too  that  there  were  in  this  period  many  lay¬ 
men  among  the  students  and  the  teachers,  like,  for  in¬ 
stance,  Irnerius  the  great  jurist  of  Bologna  in  the 
eleventh  and  the  twelfth  century,  and  Lanfranc  who 


89  Savigny.  Geschichte  de  Romischen  Rechts  im  Mittelalter,  I,  vi. 
Heidelberg,  1834. 

90  Carmen  de  Pont.  Eccles.  Ebor.  Pat.  Eat.  CE  841. 

91  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  XII,  24.  Cfr.  Savigny,  I,  vi,  for  a 
foundation  in  Toul  attributed  to  Pope  Eeo  IX.  “Nempe  ut  primum  corn- 
petit  rudibus,  decurso  artium  trivio,  non  solum  claruerunt  prosa  et  metro, 
verum  et  forenses  controversias  acuto  et  vivaci  oculo  mentis  deprehensas 
exoediebant,  seu  removebant  sedulo.  Denique  quadrivium  naturali  ingenio 
vestigantes  degustarunt,  atque  non  minimum  in  ipso  quoque  valuerunt.” 


60  EDUCATION  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

practiced  law  before  be  retired  to  the  monastery  of  Bee. 
The  judges  and  notaries  so  frequently  spoken  of  in  the 
history  of  Roman  law  were  laymen  and  teachers  of  law. 

Before  the  rise  of  the  universities  it  was  not  unusual 
for  the  monks  to  rank  as  the  most  learned  writers  and 
translators  of  medical  works,  and  the  most  skilled  prac- 
tioners,  and  to  be  retained  at  the  courts  as  the  royal 
physicians.  There  were,  nevertheless,  the  lay  physicians 
like  a  certain  Gruidoaldo  who  appeared  in  the  eighth 
century  in  Pistoia,  famous  for  his  science  and  skill  and 
who  remained  a  layman  to  his  death,91  and  there  were  the 
professors,  like  Constantine  Africanus,  of  the  eleventh 
century,  who  lectured  publicly  on  medicine  at  Salerno  be¬ 
fore  he  became  a  monk  of  Monte  Cassino.92 

A  condition  for  entrance  upon  the  courses  of  law  and 
medicine  was  attendance  at  the  lower  schools.  To  study 
law  at  Bologna  when  the  great  school  was  well  organized 
it  was  required  to  have  spent  five  years  in  the  grammar 
school,  and  to  begin  medicine  at  Salerno,  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  three  years  at  least  were  to  be  spent  in  the 
study  of  logic.  It  was  but  a  natural  consequence  that 
with  the  rise  of  the  great  schools  which  developed  into 
the  universities  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries, 
and  with  a  wider  interest  in  learning,  the  elementary  and 
grammar  schools,  those  under  parish  or  city  adminis¬ 
tration,  should  everywhere  proportionally  increase. 


91Coppi,  E.  Le  Universita  Italiane  nel  Medio  Aevo,  29.  Firenze,  1886. 
92Neuburger,  Max.  Geschichte  der  Medizin,  II,  i,  270.  Stuttgart,  1911.. 


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VITA. 


The  writer  of  this  dissertation  was  born  December  10, 
1880,  at  Norwich,  Connecticut.  He  received  his  early  edu¬ 
cation  in  the  Public  and  Parochial  schools  of  Norwich  and 
New  York  City,  making  in  the  latter  place  part  of  his 
high  school  course.  After  completing  his  classical 
studies  he  attended  St.  Joseph’s  Seminary,  Dun- 
woodie,  N.  Y.,  for  courses  in  Philosophy  and  Theol¬ 
ogy,  and  was  ordained  to  the  Priesthood  on  July  26,  1904, 
at  Hartford,  Conn.  Matriculating  at  the  Catholic  Uni¬ 
versity  of  America  in  October,  1904,  he  followed  the 
courses  of  Drs.  Shahan,  Creagh,  Pace,  and  Shields,  and 
obtained  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Sacred  Theology  in 
June,  1905,  and  the  degree  of  Licentiate  in  Sacred  Theol¬ 
ogy  in  June,  1906.  He  held  the  office  of  Superintendent 
of  Catholic  Schools  in  the  Diocese  of  Hartford,  Conn., 
from  June,  1906,  until  October,  1910,  when  he  was  ap¬ 
pointed  Instructor  in  Education  at  the  Catholic  Uni¬ 
versity  of  America. 


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